The Student Government general body meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 24 opened to a fervent round of applause for the newly-elected freshman class council.
Freshmen economics major Ryan Cleary, finance major Matt Ranieri, open-options business major Kelsey Capestro, business management and computer science double major Gregory Vaks, criminology major Kevin Lyons, deaf education and history double major Priscilla Nunez and biomedical engineering major Tyler McGilligan emerged victoriously from elections on Tuesday, Sept. 23, and were welcomed into Student Government with open arms.
One of the discussions of the meeting was how the organization could respond to the concerns of students on campus.
Vice President Michael Chiumento announced that he and Vice President of Governmental Affairs Jess Glynn are starting a lobbying subcommittee.
“We’ll be advocating on behalf of students for problems they experience on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “We’re looking to be proactive rather than reactive.”
Vice President of Advancement Sarah Drozd also shared plans for Student Government to better respond to the needs of its constituents.
“There will be a meet and greet in the Alumni Grove on (Thursday), Oct. 16,” Drozd said. “We want to talk to students about what SG does and see what problems they want resolved on campus.”
There will be Philly Pretzel Factory pretzels at the event, and Drozd hopes that the new Student Government logo will be unveiled there.
She also asked students to email any original designs to advancementsg@gmail.com by Friday, Oct. 3.
Later, Vice President of Student Services Navid Radfar announced a new initiative spearheaded by himself, along with Vice President of Student Affairs Amy Hecht and Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Sharon Beverly.
“We have a vision to bring a Division I experience to a Division III school,” Radfar said.
The senior biopsychology major noticed that many students walk around campus sporting T-shirts from Rutgers, Duke, North Carolina and other universities that they do not attend, and he wondered what could be done to bolster the sense of school pride at the College.
“We have nationally ranked teams, but poor attendance at athletic events,” he said.
That is why Radfar will be hosting a T-shirt exchange during the week leading up to Homecoming.
“Come to the Brower Student Center with an old college or high school T-shirt and we’ll give you a brand new TCNJ Homecoming shirt,” he said.
The Student Finance Board allocated almost $1,400 for approximately 350 shirts. All of the T-shirts that are traded in will be donated to charity.
“Some students aren’t in organizations on campus, so they don’t have club T-shirts or Greek letter shirts to wear,” Radfar said. “We’re hoping these T-shirts will help all students identify with the College.”
Radfar, Hecht and Beverly are hoping that an increased sense of school pride will encourage more students to attend the Homecoming football game on Saturday, Oct. 25.
“We want to see kids having fun at the game, supporting the College and making smart choices,” Radfar said.
