The Oct. 27 general council meeting for Undergraduate Student Government featured the approval of a previously tabled student club, the funding of 18 organizations and events and the setting of a new precedent that bars reporters from observing part of the meeting.
Gregory Sisk, a St. Thomas law professor and the chair of the faculty senate, spoke to USG members about his desire for new lines of communication between the two governments. Sisk said that the senate and USG had never previously been in contact.
Sisk also reported that the faculty senate approved the formation of a two-year associate degree, a step which will pave the way for the eventual creation of an affiliated two-year college. Now approval has been extended to all St. Thomas faculty, and if 10 percent object to the college, it will return to the senate for another vote.
USG approved the St. Thomas ChangeMakers Club after the discussion over approval had been tabled at the Oct. 13 meeting. Some USG members had said the club’s mission statement had lacked specificity and an identified niche. The ChangeMaker representatives returned to the most recent meeting with a refined scope and mission statement.
ChangeMakers Club representative Marnie Sciamanda said the new organization would hold meetings in a forum format in which students would brainstorm social issues to tackle. The group would then choose a few solutions to pursue throughout the year, like implementing urban gardens or building Little Free Libraries.
After the representatives proposed their club, all guests, including TommieMedia, were asked to leave the meeting so that USG members could deliberate about approval of the Changemakers Club behind closed doors.
USG had never previously closed the club approval deliberation portion of the general council meetings to reporters.
TommieMedia was allowed to return to the meeting after eight minutes. During the reporter’s time outside the meeting, Margaret Cahill, director of Campus Life and USG adviser, spoke to TommieMedia and said that it is not fair that the club representatives are asked to leave the meeting after presenting while other guests, such as reporters, are allowed to stay.
Bobby Martin, vice president of public relations for USG, spoke to TommieMedia in a phone interview and offered a further explanation of the new precedent, which was decided in an early morning meeting of USG executive board members on Oct. 27 before the general council meeting.
“We really wanted to make sure that we could create an environment where everyone could speak their mind. And if was just the general council, they’d feel a lot more comfortable,” Martin said. “We haven’t had a lot of people approach us, but we’ve had some — one or two people — saying, ‘Well, I’m actually afraid to say my mind if someone’s in there.’”
Martin said that this self-censoring can hinder USG members from doing the job they were elected to do.
“This is a really important discussion to us because these are the clubs that we’re creating, and ultimately those clubs then receive USG funding. And if we don’t do an adequate job vetting these clubs, then it’s just not a benefit to the community.”
Martin emphasized that this new precedent comes from a desire to respect the privacy of everyone involved in the club approval process.
“That goes both ways, for not only the people who are presenting for the club, but also for the Undergraduate Student Government members who might have some opposition to a club for some reason,” Martin said.
Martin said the executive board wanted to ensure that guests observing the deliberations would not tell the club representatives about the content of the discussions or the final approval or rejection decision before the chair of the Student Organizations and Clubs Committee talked to them.
“We want to make sure that they’re hearing it from the SOC chair and the real reasons behind it, rather than something getting misconstrued somewhere along the way,” Martin said.
After the closed-door ChangeMaker Club deliberations, Chris Meader, vice president of financial affairs for USG, presented the club funding requests. All amounts were approved.
The American Marketing Association received $2,200. The African Nations Student Alliance received $2,640. Band Club received $1,350. Computer Science Club received $3,410.
Catholic Relief Services Student Ambassadors received $690. Festival Choir received $4,465. Photography Club received $981.75. Pre-Law Society received $1,140.
Silver Wings received $717.15. St. Paul’s Outreach received $2,677.50. Tri-Beta Biology Club received $600.
Five organizations requested funds for campus-wide events. ANSA received $1,000 and Black Empowerment Student Alliance received $2,000. Students for Human Life received $830, Up ‘Til Dawn received $6,045.27 and Volunteers in Action received $1,850.
Two organizations requested funds for conference and competitions. Arnold Air Society received $1,920 to attend DakotaCon, a conference about security, in North Dakota. The Pre-Law Society received $411 to attend a mock trial tournament at Macalester College.
Sophie Carson can be reached at sophia.carson@stthomas.edu