Posts Tagged ‘Student Senate’

Student Speak Out to Let Students Get it All Out

Tired and frustrated with how things are at Marietta College?  Now’s your chance to have your voice heard and hear from the administrators themselves how your problem can be addressed.

Wednesday, November 18th at 7 PM in the McDonough Auditorium is your chance.  A panel of administrators will hear your problems and respond to them.  The heavy hitters will be there, including President Jean Scott, VP of Administration and Finance Dan Bryant, Director of Dining Services Walter Miller, Director of Career Center Hilles Hughes, Director of Residence Life Bruce Peterson, Director of Athletics Larry Hiser, Director of Physical Plant Fred Smith, Chief Information Officer Administrative Computing John Davis, Director of Student Financial Services Kevin Lamb, Provost and Dean of the College Dr. Rita Kipp, and Chief of Campus Police Dave Valkinburg.

Can’t make it?  No Problem.  Writing on the Mall will take your questions to the meeting and ask them for you!  Just leave a comment here on the blog with your question, or leave a comment on our Facebook page, or tweet at us @writeonthemall.  We’ll take all the questions we receive and report back with the answers.

Odds and Ends

Things have kind of fallen into a lull, so there are a lot of little news items…

• McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Gathering Place??? – The Gathering Place now offers snacks that you can purchase.  Items include Buffalo Chicken Tenders, Mini Corn Dogs, Pizza Bagel Bites, Beef and Cheese Chimichangas.  Supposedly more items will be offered, as well.  No prices were announced.  The food options are now available after 10 PM.  It is currently cash only, but declining balance may become an option.
• Appropriations Round 2: The Sequel – Looking for money from Student Senate for your organization?  The second chance to reclaim money from the college is next week.  Forms are due to the student life office by 1 pm on Monday, November 9th. The two-day circus begins November 10th at 7 pm, and continues November 11th at 7 pm.
• Fenton Glass is Dirty – Dirty Jobs (personal favorite TV show) taped an episode at Fenton Glass, a staple of Williamstown, WV (the city opposite of Marietta).  Host Mike Rowe learned the craft of glass making, and attempted to create versions of famous Fenton works.  According to the site, he didn’t do so well, so this should be interesting to watch.  The episode runs November 10th at 9 pm on Discovery.
• Community Service Update – I was told today that food drive efforts so far (not counting the recently wrapped-up North American Food Drive) have raised nearly 4,000 cans of food for the local food bank.  We should hear the total poundage from Lambda Chi Alpha’s food drive sometime soon.
• Relay for Life Deadline – Remember that forms for all teams that want to be a part of Relay for Life are due on Monday.  Registration Fee is also required at that time, and is $5 a member.  Relay for Life is November 13th from 8 pm until 2 am.  Writing on the Mall will be covering the event.
• Fall Fest – Greek Council is sponsoring the first ever Fall Fest, a chance to enjoy typical fall snacks from 7 to 9 pm at the Kremer Amphitheater.  I know I’m looking forward to having my picture taken in front of a fall background they’ve created.  Probably moreso the Cider, Hot Chocolate, and Pumpkin Pie.  They will have Cornhole (hold on, forgot we have to be politically correct, Corn Toss) to play as well.

Student Senate Twitter Report

Head on over to Writing on the Mall’s Twitter for my comments during the Student Senate meeting tonight.  A full write-up will be up later tonight.

New MC Website Brings New Direction

As in new content that will be updated throughout the year. The new Marietta College website will actually be somewhere that students will want to visit.  The site launched with six feature articles, including the following:

• Events celebrating the 175th anniversary of Marietta College
• A letter from the Student Senate President, Kyle Thauvette
• A connection piece featuring the importance of resident life at MC
• Matriculation piece welcoming the class of 2013
• Feature article on Jim Tracy, manager of the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball
• Pioneer Pride day announcement asking all members of the Long Blue Line to take a picture of themselves in their favorite MC shirt

The idea seems to be to incorporate the past, present, and future all into one nice package.  Visual appearance has improved greatly, with large images and prominently featured 175th anniversary logos.  Content is more easily accessed and easily added/updated.

According to a press release from Tom Perry, the Director of College Relations, we should expect anywhere from 4-8 articles a month, which should keep things fresh and interesting.

As a side note, we have been recognized by the college as a local news outlet, which is a huge step for us.  We will continue to provide a look at Marietta College from the student’s perspective.  Writing on the Mall is still a student owned and operated blog…just expanding our readership and promoting our wears.

Student Senate Election Results

They never got posted…never got announced…but sources tell me that your new President is Kyle Thauvette, Vice President is Josh Maxwell, and Treasurer is Chandler Wittel.

Hopefully the official results get posted to the newsfeed soon so that this can be confirmed.

Student Senate Elections, Day 1

If you are a Marietta College student, please exercise your right to vote today.  Depending on the weather, the ballot box will be located in Upper Gilman or in front of Gilman.  You will need your MC ID card to vote.  You can vote today or tomorrow during lunch or dinner.

Please vote!  Student Senate is your voice to the Marietta College administration.

Live Blog: Student Senate Townhall Meeting

6:35 PM – WotM – That’s it!  Voting takes place Wednesday and Thursday at Lunch and Dinner.  Make sure you vote!

6:32 PM – WotM – Any good at creating/working with budget?  Josh – Working with McDonough EXCEL leaders to plan budget for EXCEL leaders.  Jameson – Does not have much experience, FFA experience helped him learn how to make payments to pay off a tractor that they had purchased; stay under budget by at least 10% as a back-up plan if funding is cut.  Charlie – Treasurer for Alpha Xi, so good with budgets, but doesn’t see how its pertinent to VP since there is also a treasurer;  good at finding cheap prices on venues/food/etc.

6:28 PM – WotM – Question time!  Ideas for Senior Week?  Charlie – Last week of college career, would like to see all events be as memorable as possible.  Jameson – International Music Night, karaoke in different languages, also stereotypical photos.  Sombrero Berger?  Live bands.  Josh – Brainstorm most popular ideas with committee, have a survey of what they want for Senior Week, have a wide variety events.  Foam party would create a more party-like atmosphere.

6:25 PM – Charlie Philpott – Energy and enthusiasm is her big thing.  Hopes it will rub off on other people, like it has in her other organizations that she’s in.  Was disappointed in attendance to last All-Campus meeting.  Feels there is a lack of energy about Marietta College.  Would like to see that change.  Nobody knows what’s going on in Student Senate, would like to see that change.  Feels she can plan/execute a fun-filled Senior Week as a Sophomore.  Is really excited about an opportunity to make MC better.

6:25 PM – WotM – Charlie Philpott takes the stage

6:23 PM – Josh Maxwell – Already began talks with current Senior Week committee to get on the same page with them if he is elected.  Experience with his fraternity and Robert’s Rules of Order.  Improve image of Student Senate.  Very disheartening.  Keep morale of senators and officers up.  More representation from non-Greeks.  Remove the stereotype that we are a Greek-only organization.

6:23 PM – WotM - Josh Maxwell is now on the stage.

6:20 PM – Jameson Kelley – Has a good working relationship with most of the candidates.  No internal struggle problems no matter who you elect.

6:18 PM – Jameson Kelley – Round of applause for other VP candidates.  They’ll have a better speech than me.  Working on Senior Week committee for S.S.  Wants to see communication channels stay open between current and future S.S. officers.  Wants to see Robert’s Rules of Order implemented in S.S.  Takes maybe 10 minutes to learn the basics.  Make sure the Parliamentarian knows the rules also so they can enforce them.

6:18 PM – WotM – Jameson Kelley is the first Vice President candidate to speak.

6:16 PM – Chandler Wittel – Discussing S.S. experience.  Would like to see all four appropriation dates for next year selected ASAP.  Would like to work with exec board, have two all-campus meetings.  One at beginning of the semester, one at the end of the semester.

6:16 PM – WotM – Treasurer candidate Chandler Wittel now speaking.

6:09 – WotM – How would you break the international student barrier and get them more involved in American Life?  Kyle – Biggest issue is that the international students come to classes so much earlier than most students.  Expand DEL program to rest of campus, pair up American students with International students.  Megan – Agrees that they come to campus so much earlier, that hurts integrating them into the American lifestyle.  Need to go through orientation with rest of incoming students to mix things up and get them talking with other freshmen.  Courtney – Agrees with Megan.  Thinks students without planned roommates should automatically have the option to live with international students, no opt-out option.  Fraternities/Sororities/other organizations should get international students more involved.

6:05 – WotM – Improving diversity on campus?  Courtney – Minority recruiter in Admissions.  Kyle – Agrees on recruiter, increase awareness, start talking with international students more.  Megan – Trying to break the barrier and integrate international students more in American life.

6:03 – WotM – Biggest weaknesses?  Megan – Gets extremely nervous when running for a position.  Courtney – Being perceived as aggressive when working on projects.  Kyle – Rolling over and allowing others opinions to proceed over his instead of going with his own idea.

6:01 – WotM – Questions from the audience…What would you do about advertising of candidates/events being vandalized?  Kyle – Turn the other cheek and move on/put up more.  Megan – Put white out across her signs that were vandalized.  Be the better person and move on.  Courtney – Agrees with other candidates, put up new posters.

6:00 PM – Courtney Malone – Wants to use Robert’s Rules of order to help make meetings more efficient.  She is saddened that her posters have been ripped down and/or smeared with chocolate.  Feels that her being elected is the last step to true diversity.

5:56 PM – Courtney Malone – Minority Affairs representative on Student Senate, helped her constituency by listening to what they wanted to see happen, and then did what she could to make it happen.  Started with incoming freshmen.  Promoted diversity during freshman orientation.  Also led creation of African American History classes.  Most students do not know who their representatives are.  Wants students to be informed of who their reps are, beat stereotype that all S.S. does is distribute money.  Wants senators to get to know each other, their representatives, and the campus.  Will also lead S.S. to support other organizations events.

5:55 PM – WotM – Courtney Malone is now coming to the stage

5:51 PM – Megan Moore – Wants to take Student Senate officers to conferences to discuss campus problems and improve with national support.  She feels that she can implement this in the past year.  She’d also like to change meal plans.  Wants more options, like not losing meals if a time slot is missed.  Things like this require more involvement from students.  Would also like to hit on safety on campus.  She went on a walk-through of campus at night with CPS to see which parts of campus need lighting.  Also promoting self-defense classes better to help better defend students.  Ripping doors open on campus is ridiculous.  if students can do it, than people that are not students can as well.

5:48 PM – Megan Moore – Going over past Student Senate experience, was last Student Senate Secretary.  Feels next Senate will be better prepared to hit the ground running.  Now discussing Sorority and Up Til Dawn/Relay for Life involvement.  She wants to get more people involved in Student Senate.  50 people showing up events like tonight or for other events to voice their opinion is not enough.  Student Senate is the voice of the students.

5:48 PM – WotM – Megan Moore now coming on stage

5:48 - Kyle Thauvette - ”I’ll do my best to accomplish what I have promised tonight.”

5:45 PM – Kyle Thauvette – Food service is one of his projects.  He’d like to see meal plans changed.  Possibly extending breakfast and lunch time periods.  Getting rid of time periods completely is not feasible.  Having option to use either breakfast or lunch or lunch and dinner at certain times.  Recycling is his other point.  He feels that MC is close to being a “Green” campus.  Greeks currently do not have easy recycling opportunities.  Would like to see a recycling trailer set up between McDonough and Admissions house.  Likes internship program to promote recycling on campus.

5:43 PM - Kyle Thauvette – “Plans might not seem as grand, we have a long way to go on those.  Need to focus on Student senate.  1st, making it more efficient, 2nd making Student Senate more active on campus, 3rd more athletes participating in Student Senate.  It’s not just a Greek thing.  Athletes are a point of view we currently do not have represented.

5:42 PM – WotM – Jeff Kimble is starting things off explaining the procedure for the night.  Presidents first, then VP’s, and Treasurer.

5:40 PM – WotM – Lot of Greeks running for offices…Chandler Wittel of Lambda Chi Alpha is running for Treasurer unopposed.  I think that’s all the Greeks.

5:35 PM – WotM – Brothers of Delta Tau Delta are now arriving to support current Student Senate President Jeff Kimble, Presidential Candidate Kyle Thauvette, and Vice President Candidates Josh Maxwell and Jameson Kelley.  We will start in five minutes.

5:32 PM – WotM – People are starting to show up now…whole bunch of Alpha Xi’s here to support Presidential Candidate Megan Moore and Vice President Candidate Charlie Philpott.

5:29 PM – WotM – All of the candidates are here…just waiting for people to show up.  Format will be a townhall meeting, so the candidates will have a spiel, then answer questions.

Student Senate Debates Tonight

Tonight in Thomas 124 at 5:30 PM, all candidates running for Student Senate officer positions will be present for a debate/question and answer session.  There are several people running for President and Vice President, so come ready to ask questions to differentiate them for yourself.

Writing on the Mall will be present at the debate, and we will be running a live blog to cover the event.  Watch for the Live Blog post to come online about 5:25 PM.  If you have any questions you’d like Writing on the Mall to ask the candidates, just reply to this article and I’ll ask what I can.