By Raeanne Raccagno
Staff Writer
Student Government was given a presentation on the College’s new co-curricular logging platform, Paw Print, and initiated three new recognized student organizations at its general body meeting on Oct. 30.
Avani Rana, co-advisor of SG and director of co-curricular and leadership, and Sean Stallings, vice president for student affairs, led a presentation on Paw Print, the development of which was in the works for three years before officially being released.
Paw Print serves to act as a co-curricular transcript that will track a student’s success and leadership at the College. This will help future graduates display their college journey to potential employers or graduate schools.
“By virtue of your experience and engagement across campus every day in all of [your] activities, many times you are developing skills, skills that you will take with you for the rest of your life,” Stallings said.
Stallings explained how one of the department’s tasks, which were assigned in strategic planning meetings three years ago, was creating a student experience plan to help students articulate skills they obtained by being engaged on campus.
Rana noted how Paw Print is a new software, so some error messages will happen that will be addressed. The software team is continuing to add organizations to the list for students to add to their involvement.
Aria Chalileh, SG’s vice president for governmental affairs, then took over during new business for a packed agenda regarding student clubs.
Governmental Affairs passed five clubs in the previous week, so Chalileh motioned for two of the clubs, Friends of Medecins Sans Frontieres and Tau Sigma, to be moved into old business so they could present at the general body meeting that day.
The Caribbean Student Association then presented to SG in an effort to become a recognized student organization.
“Our organization's mission is to celebrate and illuminate the vibrant and diverse cultures of the Caribbean through dynamic programming, meaningful connections and inclusive initiatives,” said Alicia Souels, a sophomore biomedical engineering major and the club’s event coordinator. “We aim to create a welcoming space which feels valued, empowered and respected.”
Caribbean Student Association was an RSO at the College previously, so in order to recognize them again, SG had to hold a debate. Two general body students have 45 seconds to voice pro and con viewpoints on the club being established again.
After the quick dissension, SG recognized the Caribbean Student Association and invited its members back into the room for a round of applause while playing “Congratulations” by Post Malone.
The next club to present was Tau Sigma, a national honor society for transfer students. The club is already nationally recognized by the national society as the Iota Tau chapter.
“Many transfer students, including myself, felt extremely disconnected when coming to TCNJ,” Joe Soliwoda-Doan, Tau Sigma’s president and a senior psychology major said. “I did not think that I would become as involved as I am because I'm a transfer student…Tau Sigma will act as a stepping stone for transfer students to get their feet wet into TCNJ and really build themselves up.”
Transfers must have one year of academic credit and obtain a 3.5 or higher GPA after one semester at the College to be invited into the society.
Tau Sigma was invited back into the room with congratulations after SG passed the club as an RSO.
The last prospective student organization to present was the Friends of Medecins Sans Frontieres, more commonly known as Doctors Without Borders. FMSF is an international organization that deploys medical teams to deliver emergency medical aid to people in crisis, and it currently has humanitarian projects in more than 70 countries, according to its website.
“We seek to educate and engage our local TCNJ community and the work of FMSF to promote its campaigns, encourage students to consider future work with NGOs[non-governmental organization] post-graduation and to raise money to support the field operations of Doctors Without Borders,” said Arjun Saini, a freshman biology major and the club’s co-founder and co-president.
The club was passed and celebrated being the third new RSO at the general body meeting.
During governance reports, Kira Govindaraju, a junior kinesiology and health sciences major and SG’s vice president for campus operations and relations, opened a conversation to see how commuters felt about the new parking pilot program in Lot 4.
Students voiced their enthusiasm for the program and expressed how it has helped them in the mornings with cutting time usually needed for finding parking and possibly making them late for class.
Govindaraju then announced that during her meeting with the utilities management team, a potential initiative discussed was a reduced rate for parking passes in Lot 13 because of its current low usage. Something else in the works is a scanning system that would check students’ license plates to make sure that everyone is paying for their passes.
Editor’s note: One of The Signal’s news editors, Kate Zydor, is Student Government’s Vice President for Student Services. She does not assist with writing or editing stories about Student Government.
