Student Government Association

Mid-Year Report

SGA has been very busy this semester working on various projects and we wanted to share our accomplishments with you in the hopes that you will provide us with feedback and ideas for next semester! Please contact us at sga@umsl.edu or x5105 if you have questions or suggestions for us!

SGA Meetings
-This year there have been six meetings and every meeting has had attendance of over 70 people.

Online Student Calendar
-The master student calendar was started to give student organizations a place to post their events and give students a place to go and see what is happening on any given day.  Go to http://sga.umsl.edu/calendar to see more.

Roberts Rules Workshop
-SGA brought in a speaker, Chris Dickey, who’s career is a professional parliamentarian, to do a workshop on Roberts Rules of Order.  After the workshop SGA met with Ms. Dickey which led to changes and improvements within the SGA meetings .

Intellectual Diversity Debate
-SGA, along with Academic Affairs, hosted a debate about Intellectual Diversity on college campuses.  Two students and two faculty members debated for about an hour and a half.  The congresswoman who introduced the Intellectual Diversity Bill in Missouri was also at the debate and spoke.

Wayne Watch
-A tradition started by the campus radio station, TheU, when they put a shirt on the statue of Wayne Goode, one of the founders of the UM-St. Louis campus.  The tradition has been carried on by SGA this year.  We place a shirt on Wayne a few days before an event is to take place in order to promote it.  So far Wayne has six shirts in his collection.  Go to http://sga.umsl.edu/wayne to see more.

South Campus Dinning
-SGA, along with Residential Life, had been stressing the importance of dinning on South campus and this year it paid off.  Dinning service will start at the beginning of the Spring 2008 semester.  Check the SGA website later for times the dining hall will be open.

SGA Cabinet
-The SGA Cabinet is a group of student leaders from various organizations who come together every other week to help plan events and try to drive up attendance to events.  So far the group has 14 members and has met six times. This group attended a reception at the Chancellor’s residence. It was the first time a reception for students was held there.

Safety Walk on South Campus
-SGA requested that a safety walk be had on South Campus.  A safety walk is a group of police officers, residence, Residential Life staff, and other campus officials. The walk has been postponed due to bad weather and will be rescheduled.

Readership Program
-SGA added two new locations for pick up of newspapers.  One is located in the Mark Twain Building and the other is in the Nosh .

Touhill PAC Open House
-SGA, along with other student organization representatives, helped come up with the idea and promote the Touhill Open House.  There was free food and drink at the event followed by two free student performances.

Shuttles
-SGA has requested the Center for Transportation Studies do a study on the current Shuttle system.  Their report is due out at the start of next semester.

Parking Rewards Program
-SGA helped Parking and Transportation to start the student’s reward program.  Students are entered into raffles for free parking permits as long as the student has registered the vehicle and received no tickets for the year. For more information log on to: http://www.umsl.edu/~asd/parkingandtransportation/

Parking and Transportation Town Hall Meeting
- SGA has started a regular meeting with various Administrators to try and find creative ways to help the parking situation for students.  After several meetings, a Town Hall Meeting for all students was held this semester. Students submitted their questions and concerns via email about current issues, and the meeting was well attended. Police Chief Bob Roeseler and Parking and Transportation Operations Director Leonidas Gutierrez were in attendance to answer questions. We look forward to having another meeting next semester.

MSC Advisory Committee
-With the consent of Gloria Schultz and Benard Diggs, we decided to form the MSC Advisory Committee. Now, not only can students voice their opinion about the Food Service, but they can also be informed of any changes that are made around the MSC. This committee has been very successful and well attended.

Green Committee
-The Green Committee has been very active this year. They have attended the Chancellor’s Green Campus Advisory Group meetings as well as having their own meetings. They have been working closely with Craig Robinson and the rest of the Advisory Group to get some workable solutions to recycling on campus.

Homecoming 2007: Red and Gold Reign
-Homecoming was a huge success this year. Overall, attendance and participation was up this year and we believe it will continue to grow in the future. We had 880 students attend the dance and sold out within 5 days!! Attendance for all Spirit Week activities was up; we had huge success with the Blood Drive, Food Drive, and Karaoke. SGA Participated in ABC Presents…Steppin’ (their Annual Step Show) and there were 6 participants in the BMOC Competition. We had a lot more participation from the Athletics Department this year and Athletes were in attendance at every event we held. It was a great success and we are currently looking for a new venue for 2008 and in the process of naming our Co-Chairs.

SABC (Student Activities Budget Committee)
-The Comptroller has interviewed and formed the Student Activities Budget Committee. They will begin to meet next semester and review budgets for the 2008-2009 School Year.

Budget Workshops
-The Comptroller has held 10 different Budget Workshops to help organizations submit budgets correctly for the 2008-2009 School Year.

Organization Co-Sponsorship
-So far, we have co-sponsored over $1,500 of our co-sponsorship money for various programs on campus. Some include Prizm’s Drag Show, RHA’s “Club Oak”, ABC’s “Back to Elementary School Day” and Golden Key’s Undergraduate Research Symposium for next semester.

SGA Budget/Organization Budgets
-The Comptroller has worked diligently to keep SGA’s budget organized and we were in the black for Homecoming. She has also worked with other student organizations on how to use their budgets most effectively.