The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a joint resolution at its first meeting of the semester to resolve what SGA Executive President Pedro Khoury called "issues in governance."
This resolution, drafted by SGA, the Staff Senate and Faculty Senate, revises a document called "Governance 2000."
According to Annelise Catanzaro, student trustee, the major change in the revised document is that it reinforces the existence of governing bodies, such as SGA and Faculty Senate, so that in the future, concerns are brought to those groups before they are brought to the Steering Committee.
The joint resolution passed by a unanimous vote. Because of the resolution's time-sensitive nature, SGA first voted unanimously to consider the resolution at the same meeting it was proposed, since it normally votes the week following a proposal.
In other SGA business, Catanzaro said that a delegation from SGA will no longer be attending a conference in Texas.
Instead, SGA hopes to put the $1,700 given by the Student Finance Board (SFB) to attend that conference toward hosting its own statewide student government conference at the College, Catanzaro said.
The theme of the conference would be "unified SGAs and state advocacy," Catanzaro said.
She also said that SGA plans on inviting other schools' student governments, state leaders and students to this event, tentatively scheduled for March 26.
In an attempt to improve SGA-student body communication, Khoury said that SGA will be embarking on a public relations campaign that includes a weekly show on WTSR and press releases handed out on campus. The radio show will take place every Tuesday and will feature one executive board member and one senator from SGA.
Following the resignations of Thea Schoenbeg and Anup Shah last semester, Mollie Seiferas was sworn into office as vice president of student services and Jackie Kotler was sworn into her position as vice president of community relations.
SGA announced several events it will be holding in the following weeks: "TCNJ Idol," a singing competition to raise funds for tsunami relief, will take place Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Travers-Wolfe main lounge; an alumni dinner is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 26 at the cost of $5 per person; the SGA retreat be Feb. 5 at 1 p.m. in Brower Student Center.
A container was passed around at the meeting for donations to SGA's tsunami charity fund-raiser. There was moment of silence to honor the victims of the disaster. Khoury announced that in the first eight days of SGA's effort it raised about $1,000 for the American Red Cross, UNICEF and Action Against Hunger.
