october report 2010
DESCRIPTION
The Medlin Administration October Report 2010TRANSCRIPT
THE UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL
EXECUTIVE BRANCH of STUDENT GOVERNMENT
MEDLIN ADMINISTRATION
OCTOBER REPORT
"It's about getting involved, having your voice heard and taking ownership of your college experience - Student Government is our way of leaving this place better than
we found it for future generations of Tar Heels."- Hogan E. Medlin
October 2010Prepared by the Office of the Student Body Secretary
Suite 2501, Carolina Student UnionChapel Hill, N.C. 27599
http://www.unc.edu/studgov
This publication was funded at least in part with students fees which were appropriated and dispersed by the Student Government at UNC-Chapel Hill
OCTOBER REPORT-2010-
Prepared by the Office of the Student Body Secretary
Table of Contents
Introduction
A Reflection on Student Government4
Executive Branch Officers
Student Body President 8
Student Body Vice President 23
Student Body Treasurer 31
Student Body Secretary 38
Chief of Staff 45
Senior Advisor 50
Cabinet Committees 54
Academic Affairs 54
Arts Advocacy 58
Environmental Affairs 61
Global University 68
Greek Affairs 70
Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Outreach 74
Public Safety 77
Public Service and Advocacy 79
Student Body Outreach 82
Student Life 84
Technology & Web Services 87
University Services 92
Women Affairs 94
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Cabinet Special Projects 97
Carolina Advocacy 97
Committee on the University’s Role in State Education (COURSE) 99
Excelling Through Mentoring 101
First Generation Parents Weekend 103
First Year Focus Council 105
Music Festival 107
Second Start 109
Speaker Series 111
Peer Advising 113
Public Relations & Marketing Team 115
Additional Programs 117
Eve Carson Scholarship 117
SafeWalk 127
Town & External Relations 130
Appendix A: Official Releases and Letters 134
Media Publications 134
Letters 141
Speeches 144
Appendix B: Maps, Figures, Etc 151
Student Life: Fall Fest Map 151
Student Life: Organization Table 1 152
Tuition Visibility Report 2010 156
Executive Summary 156
2
A Reflection upon Student Government
Hey Tar Heels!
As we begin to move into the crisp fall weather of November it’s hard to believe how fast time is <lying by this semester. As your student leaders of the Executive Branch of Student Government, we hope you’ve had a great year thus far and we look forward to working with you over the coming months.
We publish this report so you can learn more about what we have been working on since the Medlin Administration took of<ice in April 2010. It’s both a re<lection and a rededication to serving you, the students, as we continue to do all we can in our short year in of<ice. The pages to follow have a lot of great information and details about various of<icers and committees; if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask us about anything! The contact information for each of<icer and committee co-‐chair is available at the top of each report.
Student Government is your main connection to the greater university community. It is our philosophy that student self-‐governance is one of Carolina’s strongest traditions and that students have the right to take ownership of their university. As one of the oldest campus organizations, it’s our duty to uphold this tradition and to speak up on behalf of students throughout all levels of the University.
We have much to accomplish in the coming months and we hope that this report will give you good insight to the breadth of things your Student Government is focusing on. You continue to inspire us and make all of the days and nights of work worth every second.
Hark the sound!!
Executive Branch Officers
Hogan Medlin Holly Boardman Dakota WilliamsStudent Body President Student Body Vice President Student Body Treasurer
Ian Lee Monique Hardin Paul Shorkey Student Body Secretary Chief of Staff Senior Advisor
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Student Body President
Hogan [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
The Student Body President is the chief executive of Student Government and oversees management of the Executive Branch. In addition to this role, Hogan serves as the primary advocate for students to the University Board of Trustees, community leaders and State Government through service on a variety of boards and committees. The Student Body President is elected to of<ice each February and serves a one year term of of<ice.
State Legislative Relations
Almost immediately after taking of<ice, Hogan took charge developing a strategy to lobby state legislators during the budget setting process throughout May and June. Once the Senate passed their budget, the statewide university system was facing a ≈ $50 million budget cut. The House budget proposed a larger ≈ $170 million cut; clearly there was a need to get out and speak up to protect the University’s appropriation. Understanding the multi-‐faceted challenges North Carolina legislators faced, Hogan developed a lobbying strategy and message with other student body presidents, members of the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Thorp that described the damage another major cut would have on our ability to provide basic academic services to students. Academic advising, career services, <inancial aid, and faculty retention were all facing serious operational cuts. The ending result (≈ $70 million cut) re<lected a response from the legislature to our collective message, especially on the House’s end.
This experience has led to Hogan’s plan to mobilize the Carolina Advocacy Committee of Cabinet towards maintaining a strong, constant presence during the legislative long session beginning in January. It is essential that students continue to have their voices heard in our state legislature as we continue to navigate through this major economic downturn.
Board of Trustees
As Student Body President, Hogan has a voting ex-‐of<icio position on the University Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees of UNC is responsible for the University’s long term strategic vision, policy guidance, and approval of academic personnel decisions. Hogan serves on the Board of Trustees University Affairs Committee which is responsible for reviewing all policy matters on campus. Since April 6th, the Board of Trustees has had four meetings, one on May 26-‐27, one on June 23, one on July 21-‐22, and one on September 22nd and 23rd.
At the May meeting, Hogan was sworn in as an of<icial member of the Board by the Honorable James Stanford, Orange County Clerk of Superior Court. In his opening
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remarks to the Board, Hogan gave an overview of his campaign, platform and vision for the year ahead. He included comments about the progress and implementation of the Academic Plan, the importance of collaboration in a time of economic downturn, and introduced two major projects: Arts Innovation and the Admissions Ambassadors Abroad initiative. Topics of interest to students from this meeting include the <inancial approval of the Kenan Stadium expansion project, formal introduction of Winston Crisp as the Vice-‐Chancellor for Student Affairs, overview of the eight areas of interest in the Academic Plan, and the charge to the University Affairs subcommittee to conduct research on the state of Greek Affairs (further explained below).
The meeting on June 23rd was a special conference call for the members of the University Affairs subcommittee. Trustee Gardner (Chair) invited Jenny Levering, Asst. Dean of Students for Fraternity and Sorority Life, to help the committee formulate the structure of the research on rush and recruitment. The focus of the committee’s research was whether or not fall rush inhibits one’s ability to assimilate to life at Carolina. Levering suggested we look at four potential options:
1) Maintain fall rush/recruitment2) Move to spring3) Change to rolling recruitment4) Change to performance-based recruitment
The initial phase of the research was to conduct interviews with peer institutions; Hogan was asked to gain insight into the student perspective of rush/recruitment at these schools through his counterparts. A presentation at the September Board of Trustee meeting would yield the results.
The July Board meeting centered mostly around reviewing the recently passed state budget, which incurred a large tuition increase. Hogan expressed his concern for the lack of student input in the rapid decision to increase undergrad in-‐state student tuition by $950 and out-‐of-‐state student tuition by $1,677 (further explained in the Tuition/Fees section). Provost Carney delivered a contextual report on the state budget, set in early July, and reported that despite UNC’s tuition increase, we still remain in the lower quartile compared to our peer institutions. Other topics of interest to students include upcoming ConnectCarolina graduate admissions, academic advising, and automated grading implementation phases, a redesigned unc.edu homepage, and Dean Exum’s leave from UNC to Purdue University to be their Vice President for Student Affairs.
At the September Board meeting, Hogan reported on the successful start to the year for the student body including FallFest, Week of Welcome and New Student Convocation. During the University Affairs subcommittee, the members of the committee hosted a public forum on the Greek rush/recruitment issue where fourteen individuals presented their opinions to the Board. The <irst presenter was Will Bondurant, one of Hogan’s Executive Assistants, who reported on the President’s external study with other student body presidents at our peer institutions (read more in Will’s report below). When Trustee Gardner reported to the full Board, he cited the majors concerns of the committee to be Greek safety, alcohol and drug usage, hazing and personal servitude, and culture. Among the other major developments of this meeting were the Chancellor’s introduction of his Innovate@Carolina roadmap, presentations from both Steve Farmer
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
and Shirley Ort on the status of the Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid operations, and a discussion with Dick Baddour and Chancellor Thorp on the status of the NCAA football investigation.
You can read more about the Board of Trustees and look at speci<ic meeting agendas on the Board of Trustees website at: http://www.unc.edu/depts/trustees/
Student Fee Advisory Subcommittee /Tuition and Fee Advisory Task Force
As Student Body President, Hogan co-‐chairs the Tuition and Fee Advisory Taskforce with Provost Carney and also formally co-‐chairs the Subcommittee on Student Fees (SFAS) with Dwayne Pinkney. This year, Hogan elected to appoint Student Body Treasurer Dakota Williams as the co-‐chair of SFAS; Dakota was able to focus in on every fee increase, the dollar amount requested, and actively researched the background and “perceived need” for such an increase. This decision to appoint Dakota as the co-‐chair proved to be pivotal in this year’s fee process. As the chair of the Student Fee Audit Committee, Dakota brought a wealth of student input to the subcommittee’s discussions, far more than this group had been privy to in previous years. In a year of economic downturn, student fee increase requests need serious consideration from students as to whether or not they are absolutely essential; this year’s fee process was a victory for both the campus community and the student body.
Over the summer the state legislature increased tuition for both in-‐state and out of state students to offset the deep cut the UNC system received. This increase, on top of the campus based increase previously agreed upon, was a shock to many students and left to question the state of this year’s tuition discussions. One of Hogan’s chief concerns, voiced to the Taskforce, has been the process by which UNC approaches tuition in general. The conversations about tuition begin in October, recommendations are made to the Trustees in November and then they’re forwarded on to the Board of Governors in January. The state legislature, however, does not set the state budget until mid-‐late summer, which is where the <inal decision on tuition lies. This year in particular has posed unique challenges to the Taskforce with the combination of the upcoming ambivalent November 2nd election, a new system President replacing Erskine Bowles, and a state economy that continues to suffer, especially with the federal stimulus package running out this <iscal year.
In response to the looming ambiguity of this year’s Taskforce discussions, Hogan put together a small team of students in Student Government to critically analyze various aspects of the current tuition climate. This working group developed the stance on the UNC system 4-‐year tuition plan that the Association of Student Governments unanimously voted to support that went to the Board of Governors, which was a major success for both UNC-‐CH and the Association. This focus group will also help Hogan and Holly look at various tuition models for this year to propose at the <inal Taskforce meeting on November 11th.
One reality of this year’s tuition discussions is that there will be an increase, the amount still yet to be determined. UNC is currently preparing for a 10% budget cut which, on top of the previous two year cuts, places major limitations on the University’s ability to
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continue to provide the core academic services essential to any student’s education. Without some form of a tuition increase, students would see a major impact on their daily college lives. Classroom sizes would increase and course availability in areas like the Fine Arts and Humanities would be even more dif<icult to register for than it can be today. What Hogan considers most important in the current tuition discussion is making sure that the amount UNC-‐CH proposes accurately re<lects the lowest possible number to ensure the preservation of the quality of education students were promised when they enrolled at Carolina.
Welcoming Students Back to Campus
It seems as though each year Carolina out does itself with welcoming students, both new and returning, back to campus. Over the summer Hogan and Holly worked with the Of<ice of New Student and Carolina Parent Programs to welcome all of the incoming students during their CTOPS/TSOPS orientation session, which included speaking at each opening session. Their speeches were centered around making use of the numerous academic resources available to Carolina students, diving right in to student life at Carolina, and embracing the diversity of thought and people within the Carolina family to make the most of their four years here. Hogan also reached out to new students through the Carolina Kickoff program where he welcomed the incoming <irst-‐year students to “the greatest public university in the world.” During New Student Convocation, Hogan spoke to the students and gave them four pieces of advice: 1take the time to learn who you are, 2fully immerse yourself as a member of the Carolina community, 3never underestimate the power of possibility, and 4don’t let the little moments pass you by. Hogan was also instrumental in working to create the <irst FallFest map, organizing the various organizations on South Road by category in hopes of providing some method to the chaos students love to experience at this annual event. Hogan emceed Fall Fest with CUAB President, Adele Ricciardi and was most excited about taking a picture with Coach Roy Williams (see Facebook).
Mandatory Health Insurance
As of August 2010, a new policy for mandatory health insurance for all members of the Carolina community went into effect. The vendor, Pearce & Pearce, implemented a Mandatory with Hard Waiver system where all students were charged by the P&P insurance plan unless they opted out through a hard waiver. The <inal day to waive out was September 30th. Hogan worked with the Association of Student Governments and the UNC Roosevelt Institute in publicizing the deadline to students through forums, media outlets and email reminders. P&P responded to student concerns back in the spring about what to do if students simply forgot to waive out and were then locked in to the cost by creating an appeals process after Sept 30th. Hogan strongly suggested to General Administration and Mr. & Mrs. Pearce that they do all they can to ensure that students are not paying for health insurance if they are already covered; a lot of valuable statistical information will be available regarding the success/failures/and areas of improvement after the one year period of implementation. Student Government will remain active in ensuring that student needs are met through this new system wide policy.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Town and Gown Relations
A continuous focus of the Medlin Administration has been developing and strengthening the ties with the local community and government. Over the summer Hogan met with Roger Stancil, Town Manager, and Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt to discuss the various ways Student Government and the town of Chapel Hill can work together over the year. Hogan created a new position within his Cabinet to keep open communication with these individuals, known as the Town and External Relations Liaison (TERL). Hogan appointed three students to serve as liaisons: Jeff DeLuca, sophomore liaison to the mayor; Sean Maxwell, senior liaison to the town council; Melvin McDermott, graduate student liaison to the town manager/departments. This team has kept in constant communication with both Hogan and their respective groups while also working together to address concerns of e-‐waste recycling, campus lighting, and off-‐campus student housing. The organization of the TERLs has given Student Government a new and improved way of maintaining involved in local government and has been well received by the elected of<icials of Chapel Hill.
Halloween
Student Government worked closely with the town of Chapel Hill in promoting the Homegrown Halloween policies for the Halloween celebrations. Recognizing that Homecoming was also the same weekend, Hogan communicated to Duke, NCCU, and NCSU students through a letter requesting that they choose to visit Chapel Hill another weekend during the year, but to leave the Franklin St celebrations of Sunday, October 31, 2010 for those in the Chapel Hill community (students and local residents). Safety for Carolina students was his top priority, and helping the town minimize the outside crowds allowed Chapel Hill to better manage the overall safety resources deployed that night. Hogan also secured the funding from the Student Safety and Security fee to ensure Safe Ride off-‐campus transit operations for that night, since these buses traditionally do not run on Sunday evenings. Hogan worked with both the Chapel Hill Police and Chapel Hill Transit to institutionalize annual funding for Safe Ride on Halloween, ending any potential for a lapse in operation from future administrations. Finally, Hogan and Jeff DeLuca worked to continue the tradition of student Safe Spotters. These student volunteers patrolled campus from 11:00-‐1:00am with local law enforcement and staff to help any students back to their dorms who needed it, as well as conducting a general watch for any potential unsafe situations both on Franklin St and across campus.
Union Renovations
Hogan has been involved in the research and has sat on multiple student advisory committees for the <irst <loor renovations of the student Union since the Carson administration. Last spring, the Union Board of Directors voted to bring the building up to code and to build a 24 hour Wendy’s as the <irst phase of the renovations, paid for by students through the student dining debt fee. This year the Union will be putting another fee increase up for referendum in February to cover the costs of phase two.
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Phase two consists of renovating the remainder of the <irst <loor. This includes moving the Cabaret to where the bowling alley currently exists, giving a higher ceiling and larger seating area for a room that can be used for theater performances, guest speakers and more. It includes two rehearsal spaces with appropriate sprung-‐wood <looring for dance groups, a second food option (yet to be decided), a technology hub (printing station), and a food preparation area for student groups to use in place of hiring a caterer. The space will be operational 24/7, unique to the main areas of the Union.
The other part of the renovation includes what was previously referred to as the Innovation Hub, a space for collaboration among students and student groups through <lexible work/study/meeting space that would foster creativity and create an environment to turn ideas into realities. When this fee was presented to SFAC it failed due to the ambiguity of the plan for this space; the de<inition of an innovation hub was unclear and students felt that they needed more de<initive planning from both the Union and the architects on the use of the space before asking students to pay for it. Don Luse, Director of the Union, and Vice-‐Chancellor Winston Crisp have put together a small team to address the student concerns of the renovations. Members of this team include Hogan, CSIT Chair Shruti Shah, CUAB President Adele Ricciardi, SBT Dakota Williams, and Campus Y co-‐president Elizabeth McCain. After the <irst meeting it was decided to get rid of the “Innovation Hub” title and that students would need a better visualization of the space itself. Hogan plans to remain active in these discussions and believes that more students that just those on this committee need to be part of the decision before it goes to a referendum.
Arts Innovation Steering Committee
Part of Hogan’s original goals in the Arts Advocacy section of platform was to create an expendable operating Arts Fund. The purpose of the Fund was to allow both student groups and alumni to donate towards its establishment, and then ultimately be a resource for student artists and art groups to turn to for funding of innovative art projects. By creating such a resource, Hogan wanted to rejuvenate the presence of the arts in the lives of all students.
Over the summer Hogan realized that there was a greater opportunity for Student Government to address the future of the Arts at Carolina alongside the Arts Fund. With the implementation of the Chancellor’s Innovate@Carolina roadmap, the General College curriculum undergoing a review and the University’s Academic Plan still in its malleable planning state, there seemed to be no better time to bring student concerns in the Arts to the attention of the University. Hogan commissioned the Arts Innovation Steering Committee in late August after working with Emil Kang, Executive Director for the Arts, and other students over the summer to develop the vision and goals for the committee.
Members of the steering committee include the following individuals, representing students, faculty, alumni, community members and administrators:
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Vice-Chancellor Winston Crisp
Executive Director for Arts Emil Kang
Chancellor Emeritus James Moeser
First Lady Patti Thorp
Chancellor’s Innov. and Entrep. Asst. Judith Cone
Assistant to Judith, Mark Meares
Dean of the College, Karen Gil
Senior Assoc. Dean of College Bill Andrews
Alum, Dodger TheatricalsEdward Strong
Director of Ackland Art Emily Kass
Chair of Faculty Council McKay Coble
Chair, Art DepartmentJim Hirschfield
Chair, Music Department Terry Rhodes
Author, English Prof. Daniel Wallace
Director of the UnionDon Luse
Patrons of the ArtsBob and Kelley Germaine
Director, GAA Enrichment Rick Davis
Alum, UNC Development Lindsey Rava
Director, Arts CenterEd Camp
Student, Union PresidentAdele Ricciardi
Student, Voice MajorForrest Flemming
Student, CUABTemi Duro-Emanuel
Student, Arts Adv Co-ChairSarah McGuire
Student, Arts Adv Co-ChairBen Neal
Student, DancerRebecca Rand
Student, Painter/PoetBecky Radford
Student, Roosevelt Inst.Chris Nickell
Student, Roosevelt Inst.Carey Averbook
Student, Exec Asst. to SBPGenevieve Kelly Members of the Arts Innovation Steering CommitteeMembers of the Arts Innovation Steering CommitteeMembers of the Arts Innovation Steering Committee
Hogan set up six meetings for the year with the <irst on Oct 15th, one on Nov 19th, Dec 10th, Jan 28th, Feb 25th, and the last meeting on March 18th.
The committee’s purpose is to bring together the various art communities, break down the existing silos that separate them from each other and create a space to discuss ways Carolina can be more creative and innovative in our approach to the Arts. The silos do not solely include departments but also our student organizations, alumni networks and the surrounding community organizations that should be part of the overall Carolina Arts community. Areas of interest to this committee include exploring new ways the Arts can be incorporated into the curriculum, creating an environment that fosters creativity for all students (whether they are part of a student organization or not), and establishing the Arts Fund as a primary source of funding for all student art endeavors. Each of the remaining meetings will be focused around one or two topics that generate themes and ideas for taking the Arts in a new direction; Hogan and his assistant Genevieve will work in between meetings to synthesize the group’s conversation and will develop a working report. This report will be vetted throughout February by all members of the Carolina community and then <inalized by the committee in March. Hogan will then present the steering committee’s recommendations to the Trustees during the March meeting as a charge to the University. With the support and creativity of these individuals, this committee can, and will, leave a legacy behind for the University to strive towards, bettering the Arts for all students on campus.
Admissions Ambassadors Abroad
Another top priority for Hogan, mentioned in his opening speech to the Board of Trustees, is the creation of an Admissions Ambassador Abroad program. As a project of the Global University Cabinet committee, Hogan has taken an active role in this project, similar to his role with the Arts Innovation Steering Committee.
Part of the University’s mission in the previous Academic Plan was to become a more global university. Hogan identi<ied the recruitment of international students as an area where the university was lacking in progress. The creation of the Admissions
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Ambassador Abroad program is Student Government’s way of actively addressing this need without costing the University a lot of money.
Hogan met with representatives from the Admissions of<ice (including student Admissions Ambassadors), Study Abroad of<ice, the of<ice of the Provost, and the Global University co-‐chairs on October 4th to begin the planning process for the project. The basic operation is to identify target cities in other countries that have a large base of local alumni. Cities like London, Shanghai, and Cape Town have many alumni as well as many boarding schools, which house students from all over the world. The program would allow students who are already planning on studying abroad to apply for training to be an Admissions Ambassador Abroad; they would then partner with an alumnus in the area to make a presentation on UNC-‐CH for students looking to apply for Universities. The Of<ice of Undergraduate Admissions has committed to housing this program for the future once students have helped establish and orchestrate the logistics. Funding would come from their end and they will help provide the training resources and presentation materials for both the student and the alumnus.
The long term impact of this project has a lot of potential for the involved individuals and for the university. Students who partake would be able to connect with alumni in foreign cities, which can lead to new experiences and opportunities while studying abroad otherwise unknown. Also, the notoriety gained from serving as a recognized foreign ambassador of the University would be a great asset for life post-‐undergrad. The alumni would be able to give back to the university through this partnership and would also have the opportunity to convey their experiences from life at Carolina to students all across the world. Hogan believes that the best selling tool of this University is a personal story, from an excited student or alum, about the Carolina experience. Finally, this project mobilizes an entirely untapped potential partnership between the Of<ice of Undergraduate Admissions, the General Alumni Association, the Study Abroad Of<ice and the UNC Global Of<ice. This type of collaboration is exactly what Hogan seeks to promote. A lot can be accomplished by simply connecting and engaging the multitude of resources that already exist on this campus.
General Alumni Association
As Student Body President, Hogan serves on the General Alumni Association Board of Directors. As one of four student Board members, Hogan’s main role is to bring the perspective, needs and concerns of the current student body to the Alumni Association. Hogan sits on the Enrichment committee for the Board, which addresses the Association’s programs and amenities for its members. At the recent October meeting, the committee reviewed the Career Services program for UNC alumni. With the job market in today’s economy as tough as it is, the Association has taken measures to increase the capacity for working with both students and alumni; recently, the GAA has opened a 7,000 alumni network database for all students, in addition to the 2,000 Carolina connections database under University Career Services. Hogan looks forward to working as a member of the Enrichment committee on other initiatives that serve both the students and alumni of Carolina.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Association of Student Governments
The Association of Student Governments is a state-‐wide organization that represents all UNC system students to the Board of Governors and the state legislature. As the Student Body President of UNC-‐CH, Hogan is Chapel Hill’s delegation leader, along with Speaker Deanna Santoro, GPSF representative Christine Hajdin, and undergraduate Rick Ingram as the institution’s three delegates. The association meets on a monthly basis. Hogan chose to take an active role in the Association’s work this year to ensure that the $1 students at UNC-‐CH are paying is not wasted; as their main representative, Hogan sees it essential that Chapel Hill’s student government does not lose active participation as long as students are paying the fee. Promoting student unity across the collective UNC system helps the Association speak cohesively on behalf of students to the legislature and to the Board of Governors, where the Association’s President, Atul Bhula, represents all 207,000 students.
Hogan attended the July Trustee training session with the other Student Body Presidents where he received basic insight into the role of serving as both a student leader and a Trustee to the University. Since then, Hogan has been a vocal advocate for students as a member of the Council of Student Body Presidents, where he recommended the creation of an ASG tuition taskforce to rapidly, yet effectively create and promote a student response to the Board of Governor’s review of the four-‐year tuition plan. UNC-‐CH provided the foundation for the taskforce’s recommendation to the Association from Hogan’s working group back on campus, and the resolution passed unanimously by all of the council members and was forwarded on to the Board.
In moving forward, Hogan’s vision for the Association is to serve as the main vehicle for all students in lobbying for a low budget cut from the state. This year the legislature meets for long session beginning in January. Hogan has recommended that all of the 17 member institutions create a lobbying team on their campus, similar to the Carolina Advocacy committee, to call upon when students are headed to Raleigh. The main priority is to maintain a constant presence throughout the deliberations, as legislators are sure to be pulled in multiple directions this budget cycle. Protecting the needs of the University are essential to maintaining a low tuition, and as student leaders, Hogan believes ASG can, and should, be actively involved in the legislative debate.
To help implement his plan, Hogan has set up a training session for the Carolina Advocacy committee on November 14th. Erin Schuettpelz, UNC’s Director of State Relations and Communications, will provide the training and resources, to which Hogan plans to duplicate multiple times over the coming months to prepare a core team of students from UNC-‐CH for the long session. Hogan will bring this model to ASG in hopes that other institutions become proactive in recruiting and training students to advocate for low budget cuts and low tuition all next semester in Raleigh.
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New UNC System President
This year is the <inal year of Erskine Bowles’s term of of<ice as the UNC system President. Hogan has worked closely with Erskine over the past three years with previous administrations and hates to see the proverbial “low tuition man” leave. President Bowles was a major advocate for UNC students over his tenure and was an in<luential liaison to the state legislature. Bowles is moving up to work on the Obama administration’s national debt commission. The Board of Governors unanimously selected Dr. Tom Ross, President of Davidson College, to be Bowles’s successor. Ross is currently completing his term with Davidson and takes of<ice January 1, 2011. Hogan has met with Dr. Ross brie<ly to discuss his role as the new system President and looks forward to Dr. Ross’s <irst campus visit to UNC-‐CH shortly after taking of<ice. Establishing a strong connection early on is essential to the relationship of future student government administrations and the President of the UNC system.
Innovate@Carolina
Over the past year, Chancellor Thorp and his assistant, Judith Cone, have sought out the advice and expertise of the Chancellor’s Innovation Circle, a group of faculty, alumni, parents and friends of the University. This group’s mission was to create a strategic plan for Carolina that would “increase the volume and accelerate the pace” for the creation of ideas here on campus that can be implemented in solving some of the world’s greatest problems. Chancellor Thorp, an inventor and entrepreneur himself, launched his campaign for Innovate@Carolina on University Day (October 12th, 2010), an initiative that calls for $125 million to create a culture of innovation here at Carolina.
In the late spring, Hogan traveled with the Innovation Circle to New York City to discuss Innovation in the Arts, a conversation centered around creating an environment on campus that not only supports, but cultivates artistic creativity through institutional support and programs built into the culture of the Carolina community. The group reviewed a recently completed report from Harvard University on the role of the Arts on their campus as a basis for the discussion. This meeting played a large part in the creation of Hogan’s Arts Innovation Steering Committee.
In early April, Hogan traveled to MIT with the Innovation Circle to learn more about the culture of innovation in the sciences. Chancellor Phil Clay, a member of the UNC Board of Trustees, hosted the group and provided a lot of background information on the various ways MIT promotes, fosters and supports innovation and entrepreneurship for all students. Hogan was active in questioning MIT students about the perspective from the student body about how innovation existed among their culture; recognizing that UNC-‐CH is not an institution for technology, nor is it a private institution, Hogan was most interested in what aspects of MIT the Chancellor wanted to mimic at Carolina.
Since these meetings, Hogan has become even more involved in the process through the Chancellor’s Student Innovation Team (CSIT), led by senior Shruti Shah. This group of students has served in a similar role to the Chancellor’s Circle, providing student input to the published road map. This group is now part of the implementation process of the
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
road map. Shah, alongside Student Government, is hosting a student forum later in November to engage students in the overall mission and implementation.
Hogan is excited about the future of Carolina under the leadership of Chancellor Thorp. Thorp’s vision for innovation is one that can take Carolina into a new era of service and scholarship among the nation’s top public institutions. Creating a culture that supports the formulation of ideas, provides the resources for turning those ideas realities, and then channels these ideas into solutions for local, national and international problems is going to give Carolina students the opportunity to make a difference through their studies.
One promising start to the implementation of Thorp’s legacy was the creation of the Kenan-‐Biddle Partnership in September. This partnership, forged by the William R. Kenan Charitable, Jr. Trust and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, provides grants of $5,000 to project proposals that “enhance the intellectual life on both campuses both by strengthening established or encouraging new collaborations between Carolina and Duke.” Hogan co-‐wrote a press release with Duke’s Student Body President, Mike Lefevre, and administrators from both universities announcing the program’s initiation and calling students and faculty alike to submit proposals by November 15th. As of now, Hogan knows of at least four proposals from Carolina students and is excited to be part of the <irst round of the Kenan-‐Biddle Partnership program. Learn more about the Kenan-‐Biddle Partnership here: http://provost.unc.edu/announcements/kenan-‐biddle-‐partnership.html
Miscellaneous
55th Anniversary of Desegregation at Carolina
Student Government was excited to help fund the 55th Anniversary of desegregation at Carolina September 17-‐18th. UNC’s <irst three African-‐American undergraduate students returned to campus to speak to students about their stories of oppression, their <ight against the Board of Trustees for equality and their triumph in the Courts, setting precedent for other African-‐American students across the nation. Mr. Ralph Frasier, Mr. John Brandon, and Mr. LeRoy Frasier were honored at the UNC football game on Saturday, September 18th. An autographed photo of the three men standing on the steps of South Building in 1955 now hangs in the Student Government suite as a reminder of the role students had in advocating for desegregation and the bravery these men displayed in <ighting for their civil rights.
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Carolina Counts
Over the summer, Hogan interned with the Carolina Counts of<ice, the University’s response to the Bain & Co. report to promote a more ef<iciently managed university. This internship has proven essential to Hogan’s role as Student Body President. In discussions of tuition and budget cuts, the University has an obligation to do all it can to absorb the cuts without taking away from the core academic experience of students; tuition increases should always be a last resort. Carolina Counts exists to promote and implement better management practices, removing extraneous costs from departments, schools and centers and taking some of the edge off of the small budget appropriations. Hogan sees the work of Carolina Counts as an essential part of keeping tuition low. The various levels of bureaucracy within the University slow the implementation of many of the projects outlined on the Carolina Counts website. Student Government supports the efforts of Carolina Counts and encourages the campus community to move more rapidly in implementing some of the projects that can save the University millions of dollars. Students need to see strong leadership from all areas of campus to cut back during tough economic times. You can learn more about Carolina Counts and the many proposed projects at http://carolinacounts.unc.edu/
Search Committees
Hogan is currently serving on the search committee for the Associate Provost of Global University, a new position for the University selected from an internal candidate pool. This position would provide leadership to the global programs and partnerships of the University. The Associate Provost for UNC Global will serve as an ambassador, advocate and facilitator for global partnerships and international educational and scholarly programs. Hogan will also be serving on the search committee for Jenny Levering’s successor as the Assistant Dean of Students for Fraternity and Sorority Life.
(Ex-officio) Committee Membership
Hogan serves as a member of the following committees: Union Board of Directors, University Priorities and Budget Committee, Eve Marie Carson Scholarship Selection Committee, Commencement Speaker Advisory Committee (both December and May), Enrollment Policy Advisory Committee, Carolina Center for Public Service Advisory Board, Academic DREAMTEAM, Travel Database Taskforce, University Day Committee, Student Grievance Committee, and the Patterson Medal Selection Committee. (Inevitably, Hogan is sure that he left off other committees from this list that probably disappeared from his Google calendar. He apologizes to the Chairs of these committees.)
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Officer’s Perspective
First, let me say that it is an honor and privilege to serve as the Student Body President of Carolina, the school with the greatest student body in the nation. From the overwhelming vivacity of student life on campus to the inspiring academic achievement and scholarship across all classes, Carolina students continue to make this university the best place to get a public higher education. Student Government has been working hard to harness the energy and promising potential among the campus to better the experiences and opportunities available to all students, graduates and undergraduates alike. What’s interesting about this position is that every day presents new challenges and opportunities that we, your student leaders, strive to meet head on with a determination to leave this place better than it was before we were in of<ice.
There’s no way of getting around the major concern for students this year: the tanking economy. It’s why there was the longest line for work-‐study sign up in many years this fall, it’s why tuition skyrocketed over the summer, and it’s why I am dedicated to continuing the <ight for student dollars during the long legislative session come January. My plan to work with both ASG and UNC-‐CH based groups in lobbying legislators requires wide student support and a constant presence in Raleigh; this year, more than many recent years, is a pivotal year in the state legislature’s record of supporting the university system. This state has a long-‐standing tradition of <inancially supporting the UNC system, which is why our tuition is so low in comparison to our peer institutions. The North Carolina constitution states (though paraphrased here) that higher education should be offered to the citizens of the state as free as possible, within reason. That has been the status quo; depending on how the election goes this November, there could be a shift in the way our state views budget appropriations between the K-‐12 school system and the UNC system. In order to keep our tuition as low as possible without losing the quality of our education, the bottom line is we need the state to continue the tradition of supporting UNC <inancially.
Apart from this reality, I have been inspired by the resilience of the Carolina student body. Sure the economy is rough, but we’re still running voter registration drives, raising money to build schools in Uganda, and supporting over 500 Carolina Covenant scholars, many of whom are <irst generation students. Did you know we have over 700 student organizations of<icially recognized by the University this year?! That to me speaks volumes about the passion and quality of students that come to Carolina.
I need to give a special thanks to both my Executive Of<icers and my Executive Assistants. EBO has become such a family to me and I wouldn’t know what to do with them. My assistants (Will, Genevieve, Sakib, Mike, and Matt) have all been so helpful, even though some are brand new additions to the team! I look forward to working more closely with them as we continue to tackle projects and work as a team for students.
Finally, I am dedicated to pursuing the platform I ran on last January and promise to do all I can in the remaining months in of<ice to serve the students of Carolina to the best of my ability. As I mentioned before, I consider myself lucky to have such an incredible student body to represent on a local and state level. We will continue to live out the Carolina Way, and I cannot wait to see what we can accomplish together in the coming months!..............................................................................................................................Hark the sound!!
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Executive Assistants to the Student Body President
Will [email protected]
Board of Trustees Greek Research
In the summer of 2010, the UNC Board of Trustees began a comprehensive review of Greek Recruitment procedures (often called “rush”), and commissioned a study of 18 peer institutions with differing recruitment timetables. The Board of Trustee study engaged other University administrators and Trustees around issues regarding timing of Greek Recruitment, policies and procedures for the Greek System, and any signi<icant prior or planned changes. Concurrent to that study, the Medlin Administration conducted a comprehensive study of the same 18 peer institutions from a student perspective. The Student Body President at all 18 schools was contacted and sent a comprehensive survey regarding the same topics, separating the issues of Fraternity Recruitment, Sorority Recruitment, and the New Member Education or Pledging process. Once contact was initiated with the Student Body President, several schools also utilized Greek system leaders in the completion of the survey. Survey results were received by email and in phone calls, and all information as presented to the Board of Trustees institution-‐blind.
The results of the survey were presented to the University Affairs Committee of the UNC Board of Trustees on September 22, 2010. The slide deck for the presentation and the questionnaire sent to the peer institutions are available to the public at http://www.unc.edu/depts/trustees/agendas.html.
Executive Assistant’s Perspective
In this section, I’ll brie<ly explain my interpretation of the survey’s results. First, it is clear that students generally are supportive of their University’s system. Moreover, though the sample size of Universities who had changed systems recently was small, the students at those Universities tended to accept the change and held few regrets. Second, there are signi<icant positives aspects of both Fall and Spring recruitment. Fall Recruitment allows students who join Fraternities or Sororities immediate access to the academic, social, and philanthropic resources of those communities. Spring Recruitment allows students to join with a better understanding of the college workload, college environment, and, perhaps, a more balanced campus life. Third, and most importantly, the culture of the Greek system is much more important to the perceived and actual outcomes than the timing of recruitment. Issues were raised by all of the schools, regardless of recruitment timing. Moreover, students were much more interested in discussion issues of culture than discussing timing.
If any more information is desired, please feel free to reach out to me at any time.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Genevieve [email protected]
Arts Innovation Steering Committee – Audit Report
The Arts Innovation Steering Committee held its inaugural meeting on October 15th and was it was a well-‐attended, engaging event. Members from the arts community, including deans, students, professors and local supporters all came together for an exciting conversation on where the arts are currently at Carolina, and where they are headed. As it was the initial meeting, discussions mostly concerned broad themes such as the presence of the arts on campus, the need for a dance program and the level of accessibility for both major and non-‐major students to instruction and facilities. After this meeting and in preparation for the next gathering in November, the next step is to conduct a campus-‐wide audit. This audit will delve into the speci<ics of what, exactly, is available to a student wishing to pursue the arts, be it in drama, painting, photography, dance and otherwise. Through surveys of various students, exploring the department websites, meeting arts student organizations and taking contributions from the committee members themselves, the goal is to gain a better understanding of where Carolina is meeting student needs, and where it is failing to do so. The audit will address everything from if the space dedicated to dance rehearsal is adequate (e.g. spring-‐boarded <looring, mirrors) to the presence of display place for student works. The audit is currently underway and has various individuals working towards its completion.
Executive Assistant’s Perspective
Although not majoring in an arts-‐related <ield, I’m very excited about the impact of the Arts Innovation Steering Committee, and feel it has an incredible potential to positively change the way arts are both created and appreciated at Carolina. The arts are of extreme importance to me, and I am con<ident this committee will increase their prevalence and accessibility. The initial meeting was extremely successful, with the vast majority of its members contributing to the conversation and it was effectively facilitated by Hogan himself. Thanks to the willingness of various committee members, the audit should be fairly comprehensive and give a clear picture of the state of the arts.
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Student Body Vice PresidentHolly [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
The of<icial responsibilities of the Student Body Vice President include: chairing the Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor, running the External Appointment process in the spring and fall, serving on the Student Fee Audit Committee and the Tuition and Fee Advisory Task Force, and representing the Student Body President when s/he cannot be present. Unof<icially, the Student Body Vice President acts as a student representative on a variety of committees, assists the Student Body President however possible, provides information to the University administration and general student body, and works on individual projects s/he feels are important.
External Appointments
The Executive Branch of Student Government has the responsibility to appoint students to a variety of committees across campus in order to ensure that the student body has adequate representation in the University’s activities. There are two rounds of external appointments conducted by Student Government, one in the spring and one in the fall, so that committees will have student representatives when they begin convening. This year’s Chief of Staff for External Appointments, Zealan Hoover, ran the process of appointing students to 48 committees.
Less than one week after the Medlin administration inauguration, the external appointment process began for spring appointments. Applications were posted April 12th-‐19th with interviews occurring April 20th and 21st. Applicants were able to use the online application created speci<ically for external appointments. In total, 50 students were appointed to 16 committees.
In the fall, the external appointment applications were available August 24th-‐September 3rd. Interviews were held until September 15th. A total of 85 students were appointed to 32 committees.
Because the committees Student Government makes appointments to are so diverse and vary in how students are involved, it has previously been very dif<icult to properly prepare appointees for their positions. This year, in order to make the external appointment process more uniform and to give each student more preparation for their job, two orientation sessions were held for all external appointees. The orientation session informed students about their role in relation to the Executive Branch, who to use as contacts for their committees, and how to submit reports about their committee meetings. The orientation session was also intended to give appointees a sense of the other students involved in external appointment committees. Overall, the information session was successful and should be continued next year.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
To ensure that the Executive Branch of Student Government keeps abreast of what is going on across campus, it is important that its appointees submit reports of their committee’s work. This year, appointees <ill out reports of their meetings using the Executive Branch’s website. Holly and Zealan are then able to review the reports in order to gather any information from committee meetings that is pertinent to what Student Government is doing. Appointees are asked to submit a report after every meeting, or if they meet more than once a week, to submit a report at the end of the week. For committees that are entirely composed of students, one student was selected to report the committee’s work.
Academic Plan
The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill composed its <irst Academic Plan in July 2003. This Academic Plan served to outline the University’s core values as an academic institution and proposed new programs and initiatives in order to increase the academic quality of the University. This plan was intended as “an initial <ive-‐year roadmap to guide and shape future decision-‐making for the entire University, as well as the school, college, center, institute, and individual levels.” New developments such as First-‐Year seminars and expanded public service opportunities were some of the achievements of the implementation of this <irst Academic Plan.
In February 2010, a committee co-‐chaired by Bill Andrews and Sue Estroff was convened to begin working on the University’s second Academic Plan. The Student Body Vice President of the Jones Administration, David Bevevino, and the Student Body Vice President of the Medlin Administration, Holly Boardman, served as the two undergraduate student representatives on the steering committee. When David graduated in May 2010, Shruti Shah assumed his vacated position.
To begin drafting new ideas for the Academic Plan, the steering committee split into subcommittees which each had an assigned topic to discuss. Holly was on the subcommittee that was instructed to discuss how to provide the “strongest possible academic experience.” Other subcommittees included interdisciplinarity, engagement, faculty retention and recruitment, diversity, and UNC’s global presence. Steve Farmer, the Director of Undergraduate Admissions, and Ron Strauss, Executive Associate Provost, worked with Holly on their subcommittee work. The subcommittee also included Don Hornstein, a Law professor, and Heath Sledge, an English graduate student, in their work. Though Don and Heath were not members of the Academic Plan steering committee, Steve, Ron and Holly thought it important to diversify the pool of input into the project. Their subcommittee met biweekly from May to August, and presented a <inal draft of their recommendations to the full steering committee in August.
As the subcommittees worked over the summer, the Provost’s of<ice asked members of the Carolina community to submit proposals of what they would like to be included in the Academic Plan. These proposals from the general public were given to the subcommittee they pertained to so that the steering committee members could take them into consideration when drafting their documents.
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Currently, the draft of the Academic Plan is being circulated to key constituents in the University for feedback about both content and structure. Administrators, faculty, students, and others will be asked to contribute their thoughts and opinions. The Board of Trustees has been kept up-‐to-‐date about the progress of the Plan and will receive a new update at their November meeting. After this next stage of public comment, the committee will work to produce a <inal draft that will be complete during this academic year.
Although outside the purview of the charge of the steering committee, the implementation of the Academic Plan is another important step in its creation. No formal decision has been made in regards to who speci<ically will be responsible for implementing the recommendations of the Academic Plan, but the steering committee believes it is of utmost importance to the legitimacy of the document to ensure that the ideas in it are not merely words on paper. The Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Bruce Carney, will be responsible overseeing the successful implementation of the Academic Plan.
Search Committee for the Director of the Advising Program
Beginning in May 2010, Carolyn Cannon retired from her position as the Director of the Advising Program. Holly served as the student representative on the search committee for her replacement, which began convening in February 2010. Applications for the position were posted in February and closed in March. The committee individually reviewed all applications, selected a pool to conduct Skype interviews with, and then brought four candidates to UNC for campus interviews.
Student input was vital to this process. Because the Academic Advising Program exists for the bene<it of students, the committee felt that it was essential to have multiple students be involved in the on-‐campus interviews for the <inal four candidates. The search committee held student lunches as part of each candidate’s interview. Each lunch was attended by 6-‐10 students who were able to interact with the candidate, ask questions and hear the candidate’s philosophy of advising. Students were given surveys to complete after each lunch to express their feedback about the candidate. The results of these student surveys were combined with the surveys completed by other University community members to give an overall score for each candidate.
The search committee has submitted a recommendation to the Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, Bobbi Owen. As of October 28, the search committee has not been noti<ied of any hiring decisions.
Pre-Graduate Education Advising Program
The idea for a Pre-‐Graduate Education Advising Program at Carolina has been around since before the Raynor administration took of<ice. Last year under the Jones Administration, Holly and Chris Carter, then co-‐chairs of the Academic Affairs committee, worked with the Dean of the Graduate School, Steve Matson, and others to make the proposal for the program into a reality. The program is intended to give
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
information to undergraduate students who are considering applying for non-‐pre-‐professional graduate schools. The advisers are current UNC graduate student volunteers from a variety of departments on campus. The advising takes place in the same of<ice in Steele building that is reserved for the pre-‐professional school advising.
In April 2010, a graduate student was hired to serve as the Graduate Advising Coordinator. She served in the position until her resignation in August. Because of the unexpected setback of her resignation, the graduate advisors that were recruited were not able to be trained in time for the beginning of classes. However, another Coordinator was hired in September and quickly began working to make sure the Pre-‐Graduate Education Advising Program would occur as close to the beginning of the fall semester as possible. He held a training session for the graduate student advisors in early October and the of<ice of<icially opened October 12th.
Holly and Chris will continue to serve as liaisons to the undergraduate committee so that this new resource will be utilized. Because Student Government has a vested interested in seeing this program succeed and because it is run entirely by graduate students, it is imperative that undergraduate students are involved in publicizing the program. At the moment, the Advising Program has a facebook page and a website that they are hoping to, in the future, combine with the pre-‐professional website. The Medlin Administration will be important for the rest of this year in establishing the prominence and success of this program on campus.
Student Fee Audit Committee and Tuition and Fee Advisory Task Force
Although other members of the Executive Branch have more pertinent roles in both the Student Fee Audit Committee and the Tuition and Fee Advisory Task Force (i.e. the Student Body Treasurer chairs SFAC and the Student Body President co-‐chairs TFATF), the Student Body Vice President is the only undergraduate position that has an automatic seat on each of the two committees. Because SFAC is a subcommittee of TFATF, the Student Body Vice President is able to give a consistent student opinion in two steps of the tuition and fee process.
The Student Fee Audit Committee began meeting in September 2010. The speci<ic fees that were voted on are chronicled in more detail in the Student Body Treasurer’s section. Overall, the fee process went relatively smoothly with regards to approving and disapproving of fees. However, the biggest consequence of SFAC this semester was the realization that the current fee process is no longer the appropriate way to manage fees. Because of both the economic situation and the switch in leadership in the University, this year’s conversations have been focused on taking a critical look at how tuition and fee decisions are made.
The Tuition and Fee Advisory Committee has met three times this semester, also concerned with both setting tuition and fees for the year as well as looking at the entire tuition and fee process in general. The committee understands that this year’s tuition will increase because of the budget shortfalls, but there is still no de<inite recommendation from the committee. Previously, it has been easier to predict what will happen with tuition decisions once it leaves our campus discussions; however, the
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change in legislature, system president, and the economic conditions, leave the committee very uncertain about the future of tuition discussions.
As one of the few students on the Tuition and Fee Advisory Committee, Holly has worked with Hogan and other members of the Executive Branch to look into tuition options and student opinion. Holly and Hogan are committed to advocating for maintaining tuition as low as possible for students without compromising academic quality. This is always a dif<icult task, but this year especially, when tuition will undoubtedly increase by a large amount in the face of deep budget cuts, Holly and Hogan are even more conscious about making decisions that will be best for students both now and in the long run.
The next and <inal Tuition and Fee Advisory Task Force will be the <irst week of November, after the new legislature has been elected. During this meeting, a recommendation for tuition will be voted on. At the moment, there are no de<inite tuition recommendations, so the committee will bring proposals to the next meeting.
Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor
In the April 2010, Holly selected ten students to serve on the Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor through the external appointment process. Two additional committee members, <irst-‐year students, were selected to be on the committee in September 2010. The committee meets weekly by themselves and every month with the Chancellor. So far this year, the committee has had two meetings with the Chancellor, both of which have been very productive. SACC has also scheduled one Chancellor’s Open House that will take place on November 8, 2010 and two others for the spring. The Open Houses are chances for all students to hear directly from the Chancellor about his perspectives on key University issues, as well as a way to foster a sense of community between the administration and students.
This year, SACC has committed to investigate four topics that they consider are most important to the University. These four areas are research, innovation, graduate student affairs and the international student experience. Each committee member is working on one or two topics doing research, meeting with stakeholders on campus, and identifying action steps that need to be taken.
For the topic of research, committee members are trying to identify ways to enhance the undergraduate research experience on campus. Overall, SACC has identi<ied that there is a lot of potential for graduate students and undergraduates to interact, particularly when it comes to research. The Of<ice of Undergraduate Research has been a wonderful resource since its inception for undergraduates, but at the moment, a majority of graduate students are unaware that it exists. This is problematic because it means that graduate students do not post research opportunities on the OUR search engine. Next week, the director of the OUR, Dr. Pat Pukkila, will attend SACC’s meeting in order to jump search the research working group and give them a direction. The research working group will most likely try to target graduate students in new ways so that they will be able to take advantage of what the OUR has to offer.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
SACC understands how important the topic of innovation is to the University and has therefore decided to take it on as a project. Committee members do not aim to replicate the efforts of the Carolina Student Innovation Team, but to instead reach out to current students at UNC to make them aware of what is going on at the administrative level. SACC is concerned with <iguring out new ways of opening up the conversation about innovation to all Carolina community members. One of the <irst ways SACC will disseminate information about innovation will be asking the Chancellor to speak about the topic during his Open House. The innovation working group will also investigate other ways of highlighting how innovation is already a part of Carolina and how the future of innovation will impact our University.
As technology increases and the University’s global presence becomes more important to education, it is especially important to consider the experiences of the international population that is right at our doorstep. International students that attend Carolina have a variety of services provided for them, but SACC has identi<ied it as a group of students that likely need more support than they are given. One member of SACC is also involved with the Housing Advisory Board, and the issue of international student housing was raised in a meeting. The situation of transfer students, minority students, and low-‐income students are popular topics, but international student seem to have slipped through some cracks. The working group concerned with international students is investigating what services (such as CTOPS sessions, housing, etc.) are provided to these students and what gaps exist. SACC strives to make UNC known world-‐wide as a university that welcomes and values international students, so this working group is especially important.
Lastly, the topic of graduate student affairs is always at the forefront of SACC’s agenda. This year, committee members are working on making UNC more family friendly. SACC will be holding focus groups for graduates students to talk about issues such as childcare, health care, and other topics that are particularly important for students with families. Hopefully, the results of these focus groups will give SACC some concrete actions step that can be taken to improve the family-‐friendly climate for faculty and students alike. An equally important graduate student issue is the sexual harassment policy on campus. Focus groups will also be held about how graduate students feel about the current state of sexual harassment policy and how it can be improved.
Even as SACC works on the topics that committee members have identi<ied, SACC also wants to be open to hearing from other groups across campus. Ideally, SACC will be able to expand its presence on campus so that student groups will come to SACC with idea proposals to be taken to the Chancellor. One of Holly’s Executive Assistants is in charge of contacting campus organizations so that they are aware that SACC is a resource to them. SACC recognizes that working in conjunction with other student organizations will ultimately make the committee much more effective than it could be individually.
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Retention Working Group
Beginning during the Jones Administration, the University assembled a group of representatives from different departments across campus to compose an updated retention study. Holly replaced Jasmin as the student representative on the committee. The Retention Working Group has convened three times this semester and presented the draft report of their study to the Enrollment Policy Advisory Committee on October 29, 2010.
The previous retention study compiled in 2004 is being updated to include new information about the University’s retention efforts and statistics. After introducing new academic probation policies and initiatives such as the Carolina Covent Scholars program, retention data has shifted, mostly in a positive way. The information in the report documents up to the 2007 cohort, chronicling classes of students who have graduated and are about to graduate. The <inal draft of the retention study should be available later this academic year and will be used to guide future discussions about how to improve graduation rates and retention.
Miscellaneous
Various noteworthy events have occurred during the Medlin Administration that deserve mention. First, this year a Desegregation Celebration Dinner occurred in September as a part of an entire weekend celebration to honor the <irst three African-‐American students to attend UNC. Holly was able to attend the dinner and considered it to be a wonderful gesture to communicate how important diversity it to the Carolina community while also emphasizing the challenges that still exists. The Executive Branch of Student Government was able to contribute to the event and speak with the three men who attended UNC. This event was a reminder to Student Government to continue its efforts to <ight for positive change both within and beyond the Carolina community. Also, this year marks another year that Student Government has collaborated with the town of Chapel Hill to promote Homegrown Halloween. This initiative has been established for a number of years, and the Medlin Administration views it as a good way to encourage safety on Halloween. Student Government worked with Chapel Hill Transit to have Safe Ride running on Halloween night as well as the normal safety transportation. Also, Hogan communicated with surrounding college campuses, encouraging them to celebrate Halloween with their own student bodies. Holly participated in the press conference put on by the town that alerted the general public about the continued efforts of Homegrown Halloween.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Officer’s Perspective
It’s hard to believe that six months have already elapsed in of<ice. Looking back on the <irst half of our administration, I am impressed by how much we have accomplished in such a short amount of time. From innovation, to tuition, to campus events, there is never a lull in the activities of Student Government! Things are always evolving and changing for the betterment of Carolina students, and I couldn’t feel more blessed to be a part of the group of students who are spurring on those changes.
In recent history, Student Body Vice Presidents have been mostly concerned with educational policy while the Student Body President is more concerned with larger, event-‐centered initiatives. This year, I have had the opportunity to be involved in many educational policy discussions, but have also had the privilege of collaborating with both Paul and Hogan on these conversations. Having three members of the Executive Branch Of<icers who have a vested interested in educational policy makes our administration, I believe, more effective and informed. The load is not placed on one person but is instead spread out so as to give a depth of knowledge and opinions.
Personally, the change from a co-‐chair position to that of Student Body Vice President has been both challenging and ful<illing. As a co-‐chair, there are clearly outlined goals that you must accomplish in one year. However, my new position is much more <luid, requiring me to constantly be evaluating needs and <iguring out ways to meet those needs. Some days, my <irst job is to attend meetings so that students are always represented in any campus discussions. Other days, it is my job to conduct research on relevant issues so that we can be prepared to answer any questions that are asked of us. Finally, my job sometimes requires me to act as a connector for various people or groups on campus. Whatever it may be, the of<ice of the Student Body Vice President is one that handles both predictable and unpredictable events.
Finally, I am thankful for the exceptional quality of my executive assistants. Because of the diversity of experience they bring, I feel con<ident in their abilities to give me sound advice and serve as student representatives in my place. Similarly, I have seen our cabinet members do an outstanding job accomplishing their goals. They are dedicated to seeing their committee succeed and are full of creative ideas that bene<it students. I am sure that the next half of the administration will be just as successful as the <irst because of the efforts of every member of Student Government.
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Student Body Treasurer
Dakota [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
The Student Body Treasurer serves as the chief <inance of<icer for Student Government. In this role, Dakota oversees many aspects of the Student Fee process and is responsible for organizing the of<icial treasurers test.
Student Fee Process
Dakota worked with the Student Fee Audit Committee (SFAC) and the Student Fee Advisory Subcommittee (SFAS) to review each of the fee requests for the 2011-‐2012 <iscal year (FY11-‐12).
Education of the fees process is required to have an adequate explanation of this year’s happenings. SFAC is a constitutionally established committee chaired by the Student Body Treasurer (SBT). The committee consists of <ifteen voting student members, including the Student Body Vice President, the Speaker of Congress, the Graduate and Professional Student Federation President, the Graduate and Professional Student Federation Treasurer, four appointments by the Student Body President, two appointments by the Speaker of Congress, and three appointments by the Graduate and Professional Student Federation President. The committee reviews each fee increase and votes whether fee increase is justi<ied, and sends those recommendations to SFAS.
Next in the process is the Student Fee Advisory Subcommittee, a joint student-‐administrator committee that reviews the fees once again. The makeup of SFAS is not dissimilar from SFAC. SFAS is formally chaired by the Student Body President and the Provost, but the co-‐chair roles are generally deferred to the Student Body Treasurer and Associate Vice-‐Chancellor for Finance and Administration. Committee members, then, include the Graduate and Professional Student Federation President and Treasurer, the Vice-‐Chancellor of Student Affairs, the Chair of the Employee Forum, the Chair of the Faculty Council, the Assistant Provost for Finance and the Associate Provost of Scholarship and Financial Aid, and the Finance Chair of Student Congress as a non-‐voting member. The committee generally attempts to reach decisions by consensus, and sends its recommendations to the Tuition and Fee Advisory Taskforce.
Jointly chaired by the Provost and the Student Body President, the Tuition and Fee Advisory Taskforce is the next step in the process. As the name would imply, the primary purpose of this committee is to jointly consider tuition and fees and to make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees on what action would be taken. The Taskforce includes the Director of Scholarships and Student Aid, the Director of Admissions, GPSF President, Student Body Vice President, multiple Trustees, and a few other members of the staff and faculty. While this committee has the penultimate authority over student fees next to the Board of Trustees itself, it does not spend a great deal of time considering fees, instead leaving careful consideration to SFAS.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Of the roughly 93 fees that Carolina administers, some eighteen fees requested increases for FY11-‐12, totaling $63.95, or a 3.5% increase to the total fee cost of $1914.37. Of those fees, SFAS immediately decided to approve all fee increases beneath the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) of 1.3% for the year. The Athletic and the Graduate Application fees were both approved automatically at a rate of a 1.3% increase, or a $3.50 and a $1.00 increase, respectively. Similarly, the Graduate Student Programming fee was approved for a 1% increase of $0.50 and the Orientation and Graduate fee for the Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing was approved for a 1.3% increase of $0.30.
Yet the remainder of the fee increases was considered individually by SFAC, then by SFAS. After passing SFAS, the fees were recommended to the Tuition and Fee Advisory Taskforce (TFAT), who accepted the recommendations of the Subcommittee as of 29 October.
The results of the fee process are as follows. Please see the next section of the overall report for detail on the Student Organization fee.
The Education and Technology fee did not request an increase, but it did present an interesting dilemma for SFAC. The fee has in the past been pro-‐rated for graduate students writing dissertations but taking no classes. However, beginning in FY10-‐11, the E&T fee was charged at a <lat rate for all students, including dissertating graduate students. Alex Mills, the Speaker Pro Tempore of Student Congress, expressed ample concern for the issues, and is planning to work with Dakota in the spring semester to discuss the implications of such a policy. However, SFAC deemed that, due to time constraints, it would be more appropriate to work on other fee increases until audits began in the spring.
The Student Health Fee increase was originally proposed to be $21.00, a 5.0% increase to the $421.00 fee. Much of the increase was intended to cover gaps in the $14.5 million Campus Health budget, but $1.4 million of that budget was designated to initiate the construction of the new student health building meant to replace the James A. Taylor Building. SFAC, however, did not believe that a new capital projects fee was appropriate for the economic climate, and failed the initial request of a $21.00 increase by a vote of 0 to 7, with 2 abstaining. Several days later, Campus Health presented to SFAS, but reduced their request amount to an $8.00 increase, a mere 1.9% increase in the overall fee amount. SFAS requested that Student Health return to SFAC, which approved the $8.00 increase unanimously. SFAS also approved the $8.00 fee increase by consensus.
The Student Legal Services fee requested a $0.20 increase to the $13.85 fee, a modest 1.4% increase overall. SFAC approved the fee unanimously with thirteen members present. SFAS also reached a quick consensus approving the fee increase.
The Campus Recreation fee requested a $4.00 increase to the $101.00 fee, a 4% increase overall. FY11-‐12 was the fourth consecutive year in which Campus Recreation had requested an exactly $4.00 increase, which caused some suspicion on SFAC as to the precision of the request. Further, virtually all of the additional revenue generated from the fee increase went directly to the ending fund balance for the account, and did not impact the total disbursements for the year. Nonetheless, the fee was passed through SFAC with a vote of 6 to 3, and passed SFAS by consensus.
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The Carolina Union Operating fee originally requested an increase of $9.50 to the fee of $131.80, a percentage increase of 7.2%. Revenues from the original fee amount were intended to pay for increasing utility costs, salary increases for students and staff, and two new full-‐time positions with the Union. However, the Union Board of Directors voted against hiring two new individuals and voted to maintain student salaries at their current levels, reasoning that the starting wage for students was above minimum wage, and raises were therefore not as pressing. As a result, the Union roughly halved the increase amount to $4.77, a 3.6% increase. The increase was requested to augment the ending fund balance of the Union to a <iscally sound level of $342,000 from $294,255. However, the additional revenue from a $4.77 increase would actually augment the ending fund balance to a total of $399,306, meaning that the $4.77 allowed for an additional $57,051 in the Union’s fund balance. Nonetheless, SFAC approved the increase by a narrow margin of 7 to 5, and SFAS approved the increase unanimously.
The Recreation Center and Union Debt fee was perhaps the most remarkable fee for FY11-‐12. The increase of $16.00 (a 19.8% increase to an $80.75 fee) is scheduled to pay for a $15 million renovation project in the bottom <loor of the Student Union, and will be levied for some 30 years after its passage. After a presentation outlining planned details of the renovations from Don Luse, Director of the Union and Tony Patterson, Senior Associate Director of the Union, SFAC failed the proposal in a 3 to 8 vote. The fee continued to SFAS with the recommendation that it fail, but SFAS passed the fee unanimously on the condition that the fee be put to a binding student referendum. Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Winston Crisp also assured the committee that he would pull the referendum from the ballot in February if SFAS did not feel that the student body was adequately informed on the renovations. For more information on the renovation project, please consult Hogan’s section reviewing the Union Renovations.
The Undergraduate Application fee applied for a $5 increase, a 7.1% increase to the $70.00 fee. The fee was approved for FY10-‐11 for a $10 increase, which would have brought the fee to a total of $80.00, the highest application cost among UNC’s peer institutions. However, President Bowles and General Administration denied all increases in application fees for FY10-‐11, so the fee remained at $70.00 for FY10-‐11. With this history, the Department of Admissions applied for half the amount in the hopes that a $5 increase would be more likely to pass through General Administration. SFAC approved the fee with a vote of 7 to 3 with 1 abstaining (interestingly, all those opposed were graduate student members of SFAC). SFAS also approved the fee, unanimously, and with little debate. However, when the fee reached TFAT, the Taskforce requested that SFAC reconsider a $10 increase on the application fee. The request returned to SFAC, which failed the increase in a 2 to 4 with 1 abstaining. Despite this vote, TFAT approved a $10 increase to the application fee. This is the only instance in which TFAT overrode the recommendations of SFAC and SFAS.
The law school requested increases in two different fees for FY11-‐12. The <irst was the general application fee for the school, which requested a $5.00 increase, a 7.1% increase to the $70.00 fee. SFAC approved the fee with little debate in a 11 to 0 vote, and SFAS approved the fee increase unanimously.
The second fee requested by the law school was the Law Transfer Out fee, a new fee altogether. The fee justi<ication included covering some $4100 in costs associated with students exiting the law school, but the fee was also meant to “encourage
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
thoughtfulness” among students considering transferring out of the law school. Transferring out without pressing family or employment issue is generally frowned upon in law schools, and the transfer fee was being imposed, at least in part, in an effort to <iscally deter students from allowing students to apply to other law schools. SFAC passed this fee in a 10 to 0 vote with 1 abstaining, but SFAS showed more concern for the fee. While there certainly are costs associated with students who are applying to other law schools, SFAS did not feel that all of the $40 was planned for use in covering these costs. Ultimately, SFAS failed the Transfer Out fee because of concerns regarding the <iscal deterrence aspect of the fee.
The School of Pharmacy Application fee requested a $3.00 or 3.9% increase to the $77.00 fee. The increase passed with virtually no debate in a 6 to 1 vote with 1 abstaining, and a consensus in SFAS.
The School of Public Health Global Health Certi<icate Application fee, the Health Policy Management and Community Preparedness and Disaster Management Certi<icate Application fee, and the Health Policy Management Orientation fee were all unusual fees. Each fee has been collected for some <ive to ten years, but were not on the books with the Provost’s of<ice. As such, the fees were required to go through the fee process, requesting a $77.00, a $75.00 and a $75.00 fee respectively. SFAC passed each fee in a 10 to 0 vote with 1 abstaining, and SFAS passed each fee unanimously.
The $143.50 University Career Services Alumni User fee was reduced by 100%, citing a lack of usage among alumni. Needless to say, the fee decrease was approved unanimously.
The Incoming Student fees for First Years and Transfer students, both $49.00, requested a $1.00 increase. SFAC did not <ind the increase to be necessary, and failed the increase in a 1 to 7 vote, with 1 abstaining. SFAS, however, reversed the decision, and approved the increase.
The Social Work Jump Start fee was subject to some confusion, but was ultimately resolved. The fee applied for a 3% fee increase of $1.50 on their $50.00 fee, an in<lationary increase. However, the actual in<lationary rate was 1.3%, and the requesting department adjusted their increase request down to an increase of $0.65. This increase was passed through SFAC and SFAS unanimously.
The School of Public Health Career Services fee was a new fee proposed to provide career services to the school of health that the general University Career Services did not provide. The fee was requested to be $80.00, and would have been used to fund a staff person and two student assistants. Fundamentally, though, this was a cost shift from state-‐funded positions to student-‐fee funded positions. SFAC approved the fee in a 9 to 0 vote, but SFAS overruled the decision unanimously, expressing the aforementioned concern in shifting funds.
As of 29 October, TFAT had approved $32.67 in fee increases for FY11-‐12, with a $16.00 increase for the Union renovations pending a student referendum to take place in February. This represents a reduction in student fee increases of $15.28 as mandated, or $31.28 if the referendum for the renovations fails in February. This is a savings of $435,480 for the student body to date, with a potential to save an additional $456,000 pending the renovations referendum, totaling a potential $891,480.
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Student Activity Fee
The Student Activity Fee (SAF) is a fee currently levied at $39.00 to help support various aspects of student life at Carolina. The fee is collected by Congress, which in turn allocates the funds back out to the constitutionally funded CUAB, GPSF, STV, and WXYC. Student Congress is charged with allocating the remainder of the fee to University Recognized Student Organizations (URSOs) requesting funds through the annual and subsequent appropriations processes. The fee funds a wide variety of activities, including cultural programs, <ilms, concerts, speakers, publications and more.
CUAB, GPSF, STV and WXYC are each doing very well <inancially, and do not need a fee increase; however, the need for Congress is incredibly high. Last year during annual appropriations, the 91st Congress received some $900,000 in requests, but only had $350,000 to allocate, meaning that, on average, any given student group only received 38% of their request. The number of URSOs, and the amount of their requests, is steadily increasing.
Even with such great demand on the revenues received from the Student Activities Fee, the fee has not been increased since 2003. Last year, the Jennings Carpenter, the Student Body Treasurer, submitted a request to increase the fee $6.00 in order to make up for lost ground due to in<lation. However, the $6.00 failed a student referendum with 4,884 against and 2,847 for. This year, Dakota decided to halve the requested amount in an effort to guarantee more funds for Congress’s future allocation.
In SFAC, this fee was quite contentious, mainly because the increase does not go entirely to Congress. For both graduate and undergraduate students, 33% of the amount collected is automatically allocated back out to CUAB, 4% is allocated back out to WXYC, and 5% is allocated out to STV. For graduate students, 25% of the fee goes to GPSF. The remaining 57.66% of the fee for undergraduates and remaining 32.66% for graduates go to Student Congress for allocation to URSOs via the annual and subsequent allocation processes. Because the constitutionally funded groups do not require a fee increase for their operation, SFAC was remarkably torn on the issue, voting 6 to 6 on whether to pass the fee. The decision ultimately fell on the chair, who voted for the fee.
The fee is still pending a student referendum to be decided with the February election.
Organizational Treasurer Updates
A signi<icant portion of the Student Body Treasurer’s duties pertain to the certi<ication and regulation of Organizational Treasurers (OTr, pronounced “otter”). OTr certi<ication is required for the treasurers of all URSOs requesting Congressional funds. To become and OTr, an individual must pass a test measuring competency of Title V and register with the SBT.
This year, Dakota has made strides in both the certi<ication and recording of OTrs. Dakota spent several weeks during the summer re<ining the OTr certi<ication test to accurately re<lect an individual’s knowledge of Title V. The certi<ication test is certainly harder, but Dakota has noticed that groups submitting requests to Congress seem to be more knowledgeable and well thought out requests than those at this point in the 91st Congress. Further, Dakota has published the OTr database, titled the OTr Romp, and available on the Congress website.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Generally, the OTr certi<ication expires with each <iscal year (June 30th). At the end of the previous session of Congress, a new law was passed allowing the Student Body Treasurer to recertify individuals who had previously been certi<ied. Dakota has chosen to use this power with great reserve, developing a policy in which only those who have extenuating circumstance, have been OTrs for two or more years, or have been Finance Committee members are automatically recerti<ied.
Finally, Congress has recently passed legislation stating that an URSO’s OTr is the only person permitted to submit requests to the Finance Committee. Historically, Finance has had some issue with individuals other than OTrs submitting requests, which generally results in poorly written and uninformed requests. With the recent passage of the bill specifying who should submit requests, though, this problem has more or less been resolved.
Legislative Priorities
Only two members of the executive branch are allowed to submit legislation to Student Congress: the Student Body President and the Student Body Treasurer. Generally, the SBP exercises this power very infrequently, and the SBT exercises this power only as it is applicable to <inance requests and <inance law. This year, however, both Hogan and Dakota worked on legislation pertaining to the con<lict of interest clause within the Student Code. Title IV, Section 208 disallowed “senior members” of the executive branch from serving in Honor Court. Taylor Mercado and Jagir Patel have served most of the year as vice-‐chairs on cabinet committees, a position which was not included as a senior member in Section 208, but to which Congress had some objection.
Unfortunately, Congress, in expressing their concern, acted illegally by passing a resolution requiring for both Taylor and Jagir to appear before Congress’s Ethics Committee to be approved. Dakota and Hogan both had multiple objections to this, both on practical and legal grounds. Ultimately, Dakota and Hogan coauthored a piece of legislation striking the con<lict of interest clause for Honor Court with all members of all three branches of student government. That legislation is now in effect, and Jagir and Taylor are serving as full co-‐chairs of their respective committees.
Dakota has also been working with Assistant Student Body Treasurer (ASBT) Kevin Kimball to provide much-‐needed revisions to Title V. The student fee process has taken a great deal of Dakota’s time to this point, but now that the process is essentially completed, Dakota will be spending a great deal of time working to complete these revisions. He hopes to have them completed and submitted to Congress over the winter holidays.
Student Congress Interactions
Dakota serves as an ex-‐of<icio member on the Finance Committee of Student Congress and, as such, reviews submissions for the subsequent appropriations process. So far this semester, Congress has allocated some $45,000 to student groups for a host of cultural, dance, and publication-‐related activities. Similarly to his involvement with SSC, Dakota serves only in an executive, <inancial advisor role.
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Safety and Security Committee
Dakota began his term as an ex-‐of<icio, non-‐voting member of the Safety and Security Committee this fall. Dakota serves primarily as a <inancial advisor, reporting the remaining balance on the account to the committee and executing any allocations the committee makes to special projects. The committee has only just begun allocating fees, and disbursing those funds will be the remainder of Dakota’s involvement with the SSC in the upcoming months.
Officer Perspective
My involvement with Student Government in the past two years has been overwhelmingly with Student Congress. The shift to the Executive Branch was, admittedly, something of a culture shock for me – the two branches work on incredibly different issues for students, both of which are important, but both of which could not be more different from one another. As SBT, I am very much a member of the Executive Branch that I’ve grown to enjoy so much, but I also retain a fair amount of involvement in Student Congress. Of all of the many student government positions, SBT straddles the worlds of Congress and the Executive Branch the most and, as such, has been an incredibly good <it for me.
So far as I understand it, my role as treasurer has been very different from the job that most SBTs have performed. Each of my predecessors performed their duties admirably, but each of the treasurers in the known past has performed a different job. The title of “treasurer” carries with it connotations of balancing budgets and disbursing funds, both of which are important aspects of my job; however, the job as I have approached it this year places a great deal more emphasis on the input I am able to give to the student fee process. I view myself less as an accountant, but more of as an advocate for students in matters related to <iscal policy. Saving students money in whatever way I can is, fundamentally, why I took the job and is something I will continue to work to do throughout the remainder of the year.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Student Body Secretary
Position Description:
The Student Body Secretary is charged with overseeing all public relations and marketing efforts of the Executive Branch. In this role the Student Body Secretary serves as the chief contact for students, oversees the Executive Branch website, produces the Executive Branch’s two main reports (October Report and March Report) and solicits feedback from the student body on key policy issues. In addition to these responsibilities, the Student Body Secretary is charged with updating the student code and keeping minutes for cabinet and executive board meetings.
Executive Assistants: “Lee’s Liaisons”
The Student Body Secretary is very lucky to have a team of dedicated and hard working individuals who make things happen. Dubbed, Lee’s Liaisons the Of<ice of the Student Body Secretary is made up of Sam Ellis, Jonathan Herrera, Beth Lawrence, and Lucas Wood. Each of these individuals oversees particular aspects of the of<ice and are working to change the face of Student Government at UNC-‐CH.
Student Feedback/Resources
Since coming into of<ice, Ian has worked to increase the role of student feedback in Student Government decisions. In the Jones’ Administration, Ian showed that it is possible to gather student feedback on large and pressing concerns and utilize that data improve Student Government’s decision making processes and Ian has continued to utilize student feedback to this effect in the Medlin Administration.
One way that Ian has attempted to incorporate student feedback into University and Student Government action is through the “Have Your Say” program which chooses a critical topic of student concern each month and asks students to quickly become a part of the discussion. So far the program has focused primarily on programs or initiatives that students support <inancially but the program is not limited to this type of content. Topics that have been introduced or considered so far include awareness of WXYC and Halloween Safety. In the coming months the program will feature surveys on Tuition & Fees, Carolina Basketball Prospects, Student Government, and Innovation@Carolina. So far feedback from this process has been very positive and Ian looks forward to continuing this project.
In the coming months, Ian will be launching a more in depth initiative in conjunction with “Have Your Say” so that Student Government is better able to understand the opinions and desires of students beyond facts and <igures. The program will allow
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selected students the opportunity to both communicate, meet, and discuss their feelings of student government directly to its leaders and will hopefully help Student Government connect more deeply with students who may not otherwise be involved. Launching Nov 15th, the program seeks to reach out to 800 students by the end of the Medlin Administration in April.
In addition to soliciting student feedback, Ian has focused a great deal of attention on improving the types resources Student Government provides for students. Currently, Student Government puts on a lot of in-‐house events and policy initiatives designed to enhance or improve the student experience but, at least the Executive Branch, does little to aid students in their own personal pursuits in college. To change this, the Of<ice of the Student Body Secretary is creating a series of publications designed to help students achieve their own dreams and desires. Topics of publications currently under development including Event Marketing and Media Publicity (Titled, Check that Out), Understanding the Student Election Process (Titled, So You Wanna Run for SBP), and Finding your place at Carolina. It is Ian’s hope that these publications will serve as a foundation for an on-‐going program that will continue to create and update similar publications for future students. The Carolina Broadcasting Team will also be creating an accompanying series of videos designed at helping students better manage their time in college.
Student Multimedia:
Since coming into of<ice in April, Ian has worked closely on improving Student Government’s ability to create quality multimedia to connect with students. These efforts have led to the creation of a new video program, an in-‐house multimedia production team, and numerous new social-‐media distribution channels by which Student Government can connect with and provide value to students.
Carolina Broadcast Team
At the start of the fall semester, Ian appointed Beth Lawrence to head up the creation of a team of skillful students charged with creating promotional and helpful multimedia for the Executive Branch. Designed to serve as Student Government’s in-‐house production team, the Carolina Broadcast Team will create high quality videos designed to enhance the experience at Carolina. Thanks to an agreement with the Communications Department students involved with the Carolina Broadcast Team will receive three hours of independent student credit per semester of involvement.
Carolina Week Presidential Updates
Over the summer, Ian reached out to the School of Journalism’s Carolina Week and Carolina Connect programs and Student Television (STV) about establishing a partnership to create a new short student news program focused on pressing and important issues.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
With the help of the Journalism School and the producers at Carolina Week, Student Government has secured a 5 minute biweekly section of the Carolina Week broadcast dedicated to student news and opinion. A production schedule for this new series has been determined and taping will begin on Nov 1st.
Weekly Update Short Television Series
In addition to the program on Carolina Week, the Of<ice of the Secretary is working with Student Television and the Outreach Committee of Student Government to create an additional video outlet for student organizations and groups to get their message out to students.
Ian and Beth have been working closely with Kelsey Noonan, the STV Station Manager, and Clay Vickers to develop a short segment series that would run on STV and the Union Lobby screens. So far, development of this proposal has been slow but it appears the series could be <inalized and running as early as January. Ian will continue to work closely with this group to see this news program come to fruition.
The Student Body President Show on WXYC
Ian has worked with Matt Berginski at WXYC to continue the Student Body President Show. This bi-‐weekly talk show focuses on in-‐depth discussion of pressing student issues and government initiatives such as tuition, Halloween safety, and getting involved on campus. Podcasts of the show are available on the Student Government website under the “Multimedia” tab along with a listing of show guests.
SafeWalk
SafeWalk, the late night safety service started out of the Of<ice of the Secretary in January, is entering its second semester and Ian has been working closely with Christina Lynch and Calvin Lewis to ensure that this program remains successful.
In his role as Secretary, Ian remains a critical component of the SafeWalk organization and advises both Christina and Calvin on operational and public relation matters and is a member of the SafeWalk Advisory Board. In September Ian served as part of the interview team that oversaw the recruitment of new SafeWalk employees. In addition, due to unexpected personnel changes, Ian volunteered to rejoin the SafeWalk employee team and cover several shifts in September and October. This allowed Ian the opportunity to reassess the program from an internal perspective and judge public perception of the program.
In the coming months, Ian will be working closely with the SafeWalk Advisory Team, the Student Safety and Security Committee, and Calvin to commence a one-‐year evaluation of the SafeWalk program and develop a two-‐year roadmap for the future of SafeWalk. A critical part of this review and subsequent discussion will be securing permanent
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funding for SafeWalk and continuing the process towards independence from Student Government.
Ian and Christina are also currently investigating the possibility of SafeWalk partnering with local taxi services to provide late night transportation for off-‐campus students at a <lat rate. This investigation is only at the preliminary stages but responses from both students and taxi services have shown promise.
New Design Standards & Identity
Over the summer, Ian developed a new branding identity for Student Government that included a new logo and design standards. Previous to this, the Executive Branch of Student Government had used a variety of design standards ( most notably the University seal) and logos to represent itself publicly causing some to become confused as to Student Governments relationship with the University administration.
Frustrated by the lack of action on this issue, which Ian believed was hindering Student Government’s ability to properly establish itself, and the discovery that Student Government had recently used the slogan “We do the Students Good”, Ian began working on a new branding identity. This identity was to be “distinctly Carolina, entirely for the students, and rooted in our community” so as to represent the mission, make up, and rich history of Student Government. After gathering over 100 sample logos from student government associations at other universities and colleges, Ian created a draft low resolution logo which was presented to the Executive Board for approval. Following review in late June, the new logo was approved and incorporated into the website redevelopment and social media goals that were being worked on.
The <irst public application of the new design was on the new UNC Student Government Facebook fan page in which it was featured in the pro<ile picture section. In the following months it was used repeatedly on various promotional materials and recruitment applications at both the Student Government open house and other welcome events.
The new identity was designed to be adaptable to all three branches of Student Government and to jumpstart the creation of a lasting brand by which students could recognize Student Government sponsored events and activities. To this end the design is <lexible, fun, but respectful of the organization’s purpose. While applicable to all three branches of Student Government the logo has only been actively adopted by the Executive Branch but will hopefully be prominently featured in the new Student Government web portal that is due to go live later in the year. A more permanent high resolution of the logo still needs to be created but discussions with design services and the Student Government Public Relations team over price and completion timelines are still ongoing.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Updated Student Government Website
Over the summer, Ian led an effort to update the existing Executive Branch website and begin steps to replace the current Joomla template design. In this process, Ian created new banner designs for the home page, created and altered pages to <it the new administration, and started a new online digital archive for past administrations.
Ian also worked closely with Lucas Wood, Max Beckman-‐Harned, and employees at both ITS and the IT Division of Student Affairs to investigate possible alternative platforms for the Student Government webpage that would be more user friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and organized. Solutions considered included WordPress, SGIMS, Joomla, and HTML. Designs for the new website were drafted by Ian and presented for review on the Student Government facebook fan page but a lack of funding and access to technical skills dramatically slowed down the process. In the coming months, Ian will continue to look for funding sources and interested students but until then this project has been put on hold.
Carolina Look
Ian is currently working with Student Affairs, Lucas Wood, and a team of students to develop a monthly newsletter covering various aspects on campus. The idea being that this newsletter would help to centralize the current overuse of announcements through campus email and serve as a signal trusted resource for students, keeping them up to date on the critical issues.
This summer, Ian began investigating possible technical systems that could handle the proposed <lexible nature of the Carolina Look. Ian spoke with of<icials at the Town of Chapel Hill about their <lexible email newsletter system but found it did not <it the needs of the Carolina Look. In addition, Ian contacted Brian Payst at Student Affairs about possible resources available but was unsuccessful at <inding a solution. Money and a lack of technical expertise are the biggest hurdles facing the Carolina Look at this time because cheaper solutions do not offer the innovative features required to differentiate the Look for other campus newsletters. Ian is still looking into possible solutions and recently met with Vice-‐Chancellor Crisp about possible HTML Email design help that Student Affairs could provide through their Union Design Services department.
Beyond the technical, Ian also compiled a list of contacts across campus that could provide content for the Carolina Look covering academics, athletics, intramural sports, artistic performances on campus, speakers, service opportunities, and diversity. A group of students was organized to oversee collection of event data but are currently awaiting a technical solution before continuing.
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Student Code and Congress Relations
This year the Student Body Secretary has been working to improve in-‐reach within the various branches of Student Government but results continue to be mixed. Ian has been attending Student Congress’ full and committee meetings when possible and has built good relationships with many in Congress that have improved communication between our two branches. Overall relations between the Executive Branch and Student Congress have been strained by questions over con<lict of interest policies, the role of congressional oversight and inter-‐branch communication. Ian will continue to work with leaders in Student Congress to improve this relationship but many hurdles remain.
Media Relations: Outside UNC
Enews: This summer, Ian responded to an interview request by Eschoolnews.com regarding Carolina’s decision to move to an online only billing system. In this interview, Ian expressed some of the challenges and bene<its to this switch from a student perspective and helped connect Mr. Carter to other contacts on campus for further information. This interview was published by Eschoolnews on May 19th.
New York Times: Over the summer, Ian was approached by Ron Leiber of the New York Times regarding a personal <inance column he was producing on working off your college education. Mr. Leiber was searching for a UNC student that was working their way through college without having to take out any student loans or grants. As the best value in higher education, Mr. Leiber thought he may be able to <ind such a student at UNC and was hoping Ian could connect him with such a student. However, Ian was unable to do so due in part to summer vacation but also because Carolina’s generous <inancial aid system does not usually allows students in such situations to go unsupported by the University through scholarships or grants.
News & Observer: As part of Student Government’s push on tuition this summer, Ian and Hogan worked closely with the Raleigh News & Observer to publish a op-‐ed column designed to raise awareness of the impact budget cuts could have on our education system. Ian and Hogan then drafted a column which was approved for publishing by the News & Observer. However, the <inal tuition plan was release one day before the column was scheduled to be published and was therefore pulled. You can read the column in the appendix.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Officer Perspective
The role of the Student Body Secretary is something that has been highly ambiguous year over year with the only codi<ied duty (until this year) being to update and maintain the Student Code. Over the years, the position has developed into something resembling a Press Secretary with the Secretary helping to craft the President’s message and working with media outlets and students to disseminate information of student concern but I believe it can be something much greater.
Student Government has a perception problem because too often we are seen promoting our own events, our own initiatives, and our own desires rather than helping students with things they care about. This year, I have tried to break this perception by reaching out to students and including them in our discussions through polling and feedback programs but more must be done. On April 7, I took an oath to work for the betterment of the students at this University and that oath was not limited simply to the students interested in becoming involved with Student Government. Student Government should work for you and you should know it.
My goal this year are two fold; to increase student awareness of the initiatives and policies we are currently doing (such as saving you $900,000 in student fees) while encourage Student Government to invest more in programming that helps students reach their own goals independent of student government. At the end of this year, I want students to think of Student Government not just as a place to get involved and help your community but also where you come for those helpful hints that make your Carolina Experience better.
The Carolina Broadcasting Team is going to instrumental in this push and I am extremely excited to have them be a new part of the Executive Branch this year. The videos they will be working on this year will help students better understand what it is Student Government is doing while creating a bank of helping videos for students that are in no way Student Government centered. I believe that initiatives such as the Carolina Broadcast Team and Check That Out publications will help improve student perceptions of their government and have a positive impact on students.
While this year has certainly been a challenge, I can honestly say that it has been the most formative experience of my college career and I come into the suite everyday excited to be working for an amazing group of 28,000 students. The economy and lack of technical expertise have made this a very frustrating job at times but I am proud of what this administration has done so far this year and the team we have assembled. If you don’t believe me stop by Union 2501 and see for yourself!
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Chief of Staff
Monique [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities:
Monique serves the student body as Chief of Staff for the 2010-‐2011 Medlin Administration. As Chief of Staff, Monique works to ensure the platform is carried out through managing Cabinet. Monique serves as a resource for Cabinet Co-‐chairs as they plan, organize, and carryout activities and platform tasks throughout the year. Speci<ically, she organizes and leads Cabinet meetings which aide not only cabinet co-‐chairs through promoting leadership development, but also serve as a vehicle for student voice where by administrators are invited to discuss issues of major concern for cabinet feedback. The sections below will provide a more in-‐depth overview of her role.
Day-to-Day Activities:
Monique is available to meet with Co-‐chairs daily via email, over the phone, or in person while communicating the openness of her of<ice to co-‐chairs as an additional resource when completing their work. Monique also attends committee meetings and committee events as an active participant, helping Co-‐chairs with set up as needed. In addition, Monique invites speakers to cabinet who would like to gather student input on different issues on campus.
This year, Monique has adopted a particular organization structure when carrying out the role of Chief of Staff. She works diligently with her three Executive Assistants (Lauren Cutshaw, Tieshia Bell, and Cierra Hinton) to ensure that she carries out her role to best meet the needs of the Cabinet Co-‐chairs. The primary roles of her Executive Assistants are listed below:
-Lauren Cutshaw: Lauren's role as Executive Assistants center around administrative processes. Lauren's responsibilities include managing the Chief of Staff account, ensuring that emails are sent to proper administration, faculty, and students, as well as interacting with Tieshia to ensure that committees acquire the resources necessary for their events and meetings. She maintains correspondence with the co-‐chairs of the committees, and forward emails they cannot manage to Monique.
-Tieshia Bell: Tieshia’s role as Executive Assistant primarily pertains to reservation and meeting management as she organizes room reservation request and contacts UNC Events Planning to con<irm room schedules for Co-‐chairs within Cabinet. She also works to organize monthly meetings Monique has with the 23 committees in Cabinet through communicating times of availability for Co-‐Chairs to Monique. In addition to these roles, she also ensures that the boards in the Suite are up-‐to-‐date and organized to re<lect the accomplishments of the committees.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
-Cierra Hinton: Cierra’s role as Executive Assistant focuses on “in reach” where she works with all branches of student government to schedule collective trainings. These trainings include Safe-‐Zone, Haven, One Act, and Education Diversity Trainings through individual departments on campus. Cierra’s progress thus far in this area is described in more detail below:
This year we have also focused on making sure that everyone in Cabinet is Safe Zone, Safe Haven, and Diversity Education trained. These trainings are very important in ensuring that we have a safe and better Carolina, and the hope is that by being trained ourselves we can encourage others to be trained as well. As usual scheduling is the most dif<icult part in planning these trainings. Everyone is very busy here at UNC, but we have also recognized the importance of these training and are working to see that they are completed. We are currently in the process of scheduling Safe Zone Training with Terri Phoenix and Diversity Education training with Cookie Newsome, and we hope to have Cabinet members trained in both of these as soon as possible. We have spoke with Bob Pleasants about Safe Haven training and are looking to do that the <irst weekend in December. Outside of training Cabinet, we have also invited Student Congress and the Honor Court to participate in the trainings with us. With the participation of all three branches in these trainings we can show the importance that these trainings have not just for E-‐Branch, but also for the entirety of Student Government.
Recruitment and Selection:
In mid April, Monique began recruiting Co-‐chairs for Cabinet through collecting applications for 13 committees and 10 special projects. In total there were 47 positions available, and Monique along with other Executive Branch Of<icers received approximately 100 applications. Once the Co-‐chairs were selected, the <irst Cabinet meeting was held April 18, 2010 with the incoming 2010-‐2011 Cabinet and the outgoing 2009-‐2010 Cabinet. This Cabinet Meeting served as a transition meeting which provided extra guidance and assistance to the incoming Co-‐chairs. Additionally, Monique conducted “working” meetings with all committees before break. These meetings introduced the Co-‐chairs to certain platform goals which pertained to their committee in particular. Hogan attended many of these meetings alongside Monique. At the end of the meeting, Monique asked Co-‐chairs to de<ine their goals collectively as a committee, identify resources needed to complete platform goals, and create timelines or outlines describing their work over the summer vacation.
Once the school year began, Co-‐chairs were advised to begin recruiting students as committee members. To aid Co-‐chairs with this, Monique helped organize Open House at Rams plaza. Having Open House at Rams Plaza was designed to reach out to students during dinner hours. Co-‐chairs designed committee boards with information pertaining to their committee in hopes that students would apply for membership on Cabinet Committees. Due to inclement weather towards the end of the Open House event, Monique also organized a smaller scale second Open House which was located in the
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pit. This was an optional event that Co-‐chairs could opt to do if they believed their applicant pool was too small.
Cabinet Retreat:
Cabinet Retreat was held on August 30, 2010 in the Student Union. The goal for retreat was to introduce all co-‐chairs to each other, review goals individual to each committee, and stress the main resources and school policies relevant to their position. All Executive Branch Of<icers lead many mini workshops which covered topics such as “Basics of Planning an Event”, “Reimbursement/Financial Information”, “Technology in Student Government”, “Working with Administrators”, etc. Monique tried to make the day more interactive through including ice breakers and leadership development activities throughout the course of the day. At the end, Co-‐chairs broke up into committees and were able to gather feedback and support from their timelines and plans which they worked on throughout the summer vacation. Monique also discussed the importance of committee members and the application process which would take place to recruit students.
Weekly Cabinet Meetings:
Cabinet Meetings are generally held every Sunday at 5pm. Monique organizes each meeting and drafts agendas for these meetings. This year, Monique has encouraged all Co-‐chairs to attend Cabinet and to engage in the conversations highlighted at each meeting. This year, Monique has invited numerous speakers to discuss and gain feedback on many relevant issues facing students on campus. Co-‐chairs provide student feedback on these matters and also share discussions with their committees. Monique has also tried to strengthen leadership development in two ways speci<ically. First, she has visited the Center for Leadership Development in the Union to help her lead discussions pertaining to time management and committee progress; and secondly, she has implemented a new introduction activity which allows Committee Co-‐Chairs to begin each cabinet with some interactive activity or ice breaker. Executive Branch Of<icers also help lead portions of Cabinet and serve as a resource and aid during Cabinet meetings.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Weekly Reports:
With the help of Student Body Secretary, Ian Lee, Monique has followed a similar system as the previous administration when collecting reports. The reports are submitted online, and Monique along with her EAs read reports. Monique contacts speci<ic committee co-‐chairs about certain concerns or events mentioned in the reports throughout the week. She also encourages Co-‐chairs to print out copies of their reports to go in to binders which are available in the of<ice. These binders serve as an additional resource for Co-‐chairs to stay organize during meetings, help when writing the October and March reports, and serve as transition materials for the incoming administrations. Monique uses these reports to help her gauge progress on certain platform initiatives on a weekly basis.
Bulletin Board:
Monique wanted to make the bulletin board as interactive as possible, and she wanted to ensure that the space was being used in the best way possible. So, at the beginning of the school year, Monique asked the Cabinet Co-‐chairs what they wanted to do with that space. She also asked the Executive Board Of<icers and the Of<ice Assistance, Tierra and Keith. What she found was that many Co-‐chairs wanted to be able to write on the board and have conversations throughout the week even if students were in the of<ice at different times. So, Monique broke the board in to three sections. On the <irst section, she created a discussion board where students who enter the of<ice can write questions to post on the board and other students can answer that questions on sticky notes surrounding the question. The board can typically hold approximately three questions along with their responses at one time. In the second section, Monique created a mega calendar where Co-‐Chairs and student organizations can post their <lyers for events on the day in which their event will occur. The calendar generally keeps students walking in and out of the of<ice informed on upcoming events. Lastly, on the third section, Monique created somewhat of a collage of pictures coupled with names of the Co-‐chairs within Cabinet. Some Co-‐chairs have decided to decorate their pictures in order to add a more creative touch to the board.
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The Officer Perspective:
This year has already been <illed with many accomplishments and lessons learned! I believe I worried the most about connecting with the Co-‐chairs and creating a “family” presence within Cabinet meetings. I believe I really wanted Co-‐chairs to have stake in the work that they did and to see the other Co-‐chairs all working together to work for students. I did not really believe that I could create such a presence and while I believe there is much to be done, I still believe that we have come closer as an Executive body.
The Cabinet Co-‐chairs are very engaged and enthusiastic and it really encourages and motivates me every day I walk in the suite. I believe having monthly meetings with Co-‐chairs, engaging in informal conversations, and attending committee events have taught me a lot about the governance of this university and the different ways in which committees can be managed. I have learned a great deal and will continue to be a resource for Co-‐chairs as we all work to accomplish personal committee goals and implement platform initiatives.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Senior Advisor
Paul Shorkey [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
The Senior Adviser, an appointed position decided on a year-‐to-‐year basis by the newly elected Student Body President, aids the other <ive traditional of<icers by providing support to Cabinet staff as they accomplish platform points and taking on other essential tasks of service to the student body during the administration.
A Note of Thanks to Phenomenal Executive Assistants
An incredible thank you must be given to Cydney Swofford and Geordan Stroud. They have been instrumental in accomplishing administration goals and without them I would be completely lost. Their knowledge and enthusiasm have been invaluable.
Global Code of Student Values
Through partnership with the Of<ice of the Provost, the Executive Branch of Student Government has had the exciting chance to help aid in the design and dissemination of a Global Code of Student Values, or Global “Carolina Way.” When complete, this code will represent the values that we as a Carolina community expect members to uphold as they go out to engage in global activities including study abroad, summer travel, internships, and research.
A forum was held in October where student input for the code was gathered and a general skeleton was constructed. From here, a small working group of individuals led by Paul will design the code, soliciting student feedback along the way. Once drafted, members of the forum will have the chance to comment and add, after which the Of<ice of the Provost will seek buy-‐in from global/study abroad administrators. Finally, the Code will become part of the University’s travel database and, therefore, a requisite read for any student going abroad and receiving university funding or credit.
Codifying the Position of Senior Adviser
Talks have begun with Congress and other bodies regarding the idea of “codifying” the position of Senior Adviser. Although the other <ive traditional of<icer positions are addressed in the Student Code, the position of Senior Adviser is not mentioned. With the passage of recent legislation allowing Cabinet Co-‐Chairs to sit on Honor Court and simultaneously serve in the Executive Branch, now would seem an ideal and opportune time to add Senior Adviser as an of<icial Executive Of<icer position.
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Paul has also been working to come up with a formal “job description” for the position. Although the role is always thought of as a loose one, the members of the Executive Of<icer team thought it would be helpful to add some structure to it by creating a general description of the position. This is being compiled throughout the year, and will be used in guiding future Senior Advisers as they settle into the position.
CollegiateLink Training Sessions
Paul has worked with Keith O’Hare and Jon Curtis to investigate the possibility of providing training sessions for student leaders regarding the functionality of the new CollegiateLink system. We will be working to facilitate these sessions along with paid CollegiateLink staff, and will collect feedback for future programs. Such trainings will be hold in November.
Tuition Visibility Report
Paul worked during August and September to compile portions of a Tuition Visibility Report. This is a comprehensive document that explains to students where and how tuition money is spent across different functional areas of campus. Paul helped to compile the different portions of the report, edit them, and create the executive summary for the document. The Tuition Visibility Report will soon be available online for student viewing, and the Medlin administration plans to distribute the executive summary widely to help inform students as the tuition process becomes a more prominent issue on campus.
Undergraduate Research Database
Paul has been working alongside a small team of individuals to create an Undergraduate Research Database on campus. The team is currently in the process of re<ining a proposal, and once this is <inished it will be presented to the Of<ice for Undergraduate Research, the Center for Global Initiatives, and various Directors of Undergraduate Research in order to investigate partnerships. The database would allow both undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to post abstracts/research summaries, and to tag their research based on major themes. For instance, a student researching and writing about issues of poverty in rural China would be able to post a research description and would tag his/her research as relating to “poverty” and “China.” Such a database will allow undergraduate and graduate students to network and connect with each other, hopefully facilitating more involvement in research across campus. This may also be used as a tool to attract prospective students to Carolina.
Tuition TaskForce
A small group of students from the Executive Branch has been meeting regularly to decide the administration’s stance on tuition issues both for the coming tuition review cycle and for the next four years. As part of this working group, Paul has added to and
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
edited a document that summarizes Student Government views on the main points of controversy. The group has also worked to make sure that Carolina students are prepared to lobby the State Legislature and take other actions to ensure that our voices are heard during the tuition-‐setting process. These goals link in strongly with the compilation of the Tuition Visibility Report, as mentioned above.
Dean of Students Search Committee
Paul has served during the fall semester as a member of the Dean of Students Search Committee, charged with <illing the current vacancy in this integral position with the best possible candidate. Paul has spent much time reviewing potential applicants and moving the committee towards the interview stage. As a student voice on this committee, Paul sees his role as a student representative to be crucial because of the position’s direct function of overseeing student life on campus.
Admission Ambassadors Abroad Program
Paul has just begun working with the Co-‐Chairs of the Global University Committee to help implement an “Admission Ambassador Abroad” program. Such a program would allow current UNC students to spend some of their time while abroad traveling to different target schools and encouraging international students to apply to UNC. The program will be run in close collaboration with the Study Abroad Of<ice and the Of<ice of Admissions, and will with time allow for a larger international student presence on campus.
Educational Policy Committee
As a full member of the Educational Policy Committee for the 2010-‐2011 school year, Paul has attempted to represent the voice of students in matters of educational and academic policy on campus. Although the committee is still doing some agenda setting for the year, Paul and other members of the Executive Branch have begun to push for student representation on many committees that are tangentially related to the Educational Policy Committee. In particular, Paul and Holly Boardman, Student Body Vice President, will act to appoint a <itting student representative to a committee charged with implementing new grade reporting measures passed by Faculty Council last year.
The Officer Perspective
The year has been, already, one of great growth for me as a leader and student. So much of this has to do with the incredibly dedicated, knowledgeable, and spirited people that I work with on a daily basis through Student Government. I am constantly inspired by the passion with which all members of the team are able to advocate on behalf of students. I feel privileged to be a part of the Student Government family again this year, and am greatly looking forward to seeing the progress that we are able to make in the coming months.
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The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Cabinet Committees
Academic Affairs
Lily [email protected] Alex [email protected] Overview of Responsibilities
The Academic Affairs Committee reviews all issues dealing with curricula, professors, student advising, the Registrar's of<ice and the dissemination of academic information to students. The committee will aim to complete projects in areas affecting the academic atmosphere on campus. With approximately twenty committee members, Academic Affairs is divided into three subcommittees, addressing academic services, academic advising, and undergraduate research.
Committee Progress UNC’s 2010 Academic Plan’s Creation
The Academic Affairs committee has been staying engaged with the Academic Planning process and communicating with the student members of the committee. At this time, the Academic Plan is currently still being written and compiled. Academic Affairs will begin working with and providing feedback for the draft of the Plan starting in November, through its release in January. As wide a variety as possible of student input will be sought, and the Academic Affairs Committee hopes to provide assistance both in revising and, eventually, implementing the Plan.
North Campus Accessibility
Alex and Lily met with Bobbi Owen, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences, to discuss the distribution of academic services among North and South Campuses. Due to extreme budget constraints, and with prospect of more cuts in the upcoming year, Academic Affairs chose to address ef<iciency over the expansion of services, which is not <inancially feasible. We have focused on publicizing and developing the Writing Center. We have been in contact Kimberly Abels, the director of the Writing Center, in working to expand the hours the North Campus location holds in Greenlaw to be more accessible to students. Additionally, our
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committee has corresponded with the Learning Center and peer tutoring services to see if these services can be better publicized to students..
Academic Policy and Services Awareness
Lily has been working with Academic Advising, service providers such as the Writing Center and Learning Center, and Harold Woodard, Associate Dean and Director of the Of<ice for Student Academic Counseling to hold an academic services fair aimed at <irst-‐year students before exams.This fair is proposed for 5 to 7 PM in Ram’s Head Plaza during a weeknight in late November, although it may not be feasible until subsequent semesters. During discussion with Dean Owen, she suggested participation from Campus Health’s Counseling and Wellness Services and Barbara Stenross, Interim Dean of Advising, in order to provide assistance for those who had been unaware of the “three exams in twenty-‐four hours” exemption rule. If such a fair cannot be implemented for Fall 2010, all service providers will be coordinated for a fair in Spring 2011.
Alex is currently working with Kim Abels, Director of the Writing Center, to improve the visibility of the Writing Center on campus, and its North Campus satellite of<ice, located in Greenlaw.
Advising
The Academic Advising Program in the College of Arts and Sciences currently lack a director, with Barbara Stenross serving as Interim Dean. In addition, Advising is currently searching for <ive new advisors, with normal turnover leaving them slightly short-‐staffed. In order to compensate, retired and part-‐time professors have assisted in advising students. When a new Dean and new advisors are hired, Academic Affairs will work with Academic Advising to make advising increasingly tailored to the individualized needs of students. In addition, the Academic Advisement worksheet (formerly known as the Degree Audit Worksheet, or the GRADS sheet) will go live in January for students who entered Carolina in the fall of 2009 and later. This will help students us ConnectCarolina to become more aware of requirements and policies without having to physically go to Steele Building.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Other Projects
The Academic Affairs committee has been collaborating with the Of<ice of Undergraduate Research in publicizing and making their opportunities more available to students. Our committee met with the Dr. Pukkila, the director of Undergraduate Research as well as her assistant Martha Arnold. In our meeting we discussed how students perceive research at Carolina as well as what projects that their of<ice is working on. From this meeting we came up with a plan on how to increase the number of students that do research at Carolina. Currently the Of<ice of Undergraduate Research is working on increasing funding opportunities and changing the way that students get involved in research at UNC
The Co-Chairperson Perspective
Lily Roberts Working on the Academic Affairs Committee this year has been an exciting opportunity to broaden my knowledge of academic policy at UNC. After a year on the Student Academic Advising Board and a year on Academic Affairs, I was thrilled to able to pursue a wide variety of projects related to the academic experience of Carolina students. Having previously served as the co-‐chairwoman of the Environmental Affairs Committee, I have been able to transfer many of the elements of leadership and working with administrator I learned through the EAC to my work with Academic Affairs.
While we have not faced any major problems in pursuing the platform, two of our platform points are essentially on hold as we wait for the university’s administration. The draft of the Academic Plan will be released in November, and we hope to provide feedback as the draft is revised through January. In addition, the Academic Advising Program is still in the process of hiring a new Dean. When the new Dean is hired, the Academic Affairs Committee and the Student Academic Advising Board, which I also co-‐chair, will initiate a relationship and establish constant exchange between students and the advising program.
In addition, issues will continue to emerge throughout the year that require student input and the perspective of the Academic Affairs Committee. I sat on the Curriculum Review Committee last year and again this fall, and its <indings will be discussed at the Education Policy Committee in November. As the Committee’s suggestions are implemented (or as alternatives are sought), student input will be vital to the successful realization of the recommendations.
I look forward to working on a variety of projects throughout the rest of the year, and to improving my leadership skills and fostering the development of those within the committee.
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Alexander Pirro
Being a part of academic affairs committee this year has been a great experience. After having served on the committee my <irst year at Carolina I thought I knew what to expect, however this year has brought about new challenges but some great experiences. One obstacle we have faced was designating concrete projects from the platform points. In order to facilitate the creation of these projects our committee has taken the initiative to contact organizations across campus like the writing center, learning center, and of<ice of undergraduate research to see how we can help improve and publicize university resources.
As a co-‐chair this <irst semester, I have learned that it’s always best to contact people as far in advance as possible, especially when it pertains to meetings. Second, that you should never discount someone who is on you committee because each person brings a unique and valuable perspective. I am looking forward to learning and developing as a leader and as a student at Carolina as the year goes on and seeing the goals we have accomplished by April.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Arts Advocacy
Sarah [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
The Arts Advocacy committee is charged with helping to increase awareness of the fantastic artistic skill present on campus. The committee does this through a combination of awareness activities, self-‐sponsored events, and collaborations with artistic groups on campus.
Committee Progress
Establish a Carolina Arts Fund Taskforce
This task force will legitimize initial stages and provide direction in targeting the main areas of interest. The task force will be comprised of students, faculty, and administrators to ensure that student concerns and goals are met with feasible solutions.
So far, the steering committee has been created and has begun to meet in large monthly discussions. Additionally a Sakai website has been established to promote intermittent communication and discussion to supplement and direct the discussions during the meetings.
Use the Student and Alumni Arts Crawl weekend as a venue for marketing the new fund to the participating students, alumni, and the greater Carolina community
The Arts Crawl is only in the earliest stages of its planning, since it will occur in Spring 2011. The committee is currently working on several related mini-‐projects that aim to promote inter communication and ultimately aid in getting support and performers to participate in the Arts Crawl. The Arts Crawl will be an excellent opportunity to market the new fund. Upon reaching a sustainable level, the Carolina Arts Fund will initially target individual student artists, student art organizations, and long term goals of the arts community. The primary goals for this project are to further aid the restoration of Historic Playmaker's Theater, work with the University on establishing a curriculum for a Dance Minor program, and allow for more funding for student artists. The Fund will be inclusive of all forms of art.
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Continue to vocalize the need for adequate, safe dance rehearsal space for the dozens of campus dance groups during the renovations on the Union underground
The committee has continued its advocacy for adequate, safe rehearsal space for dancers, especially in discussions regarding renovations in the bottom of the union and during the Arts Innovation Steering Committee meetings. Furthermore, a speci<ic group of students serving on the Arts Advocacy Committee are researching into potential solutions for some of these issues and will report back to the committee in coming months.
Work to discover untapped or underdeveloped talent on campus
We are currently working as a committee to acknowledge opportunities and resources on campus. As we continue with this, we hope to increase the general awareness of the opportunities. We also hope to work on integrating untapped and under-‐developed talent on campus.
Bring both alumni and students together for the formal introduction of the Carolina Arts Fund during a closing art gala and silent auction event
The major planning for the Arts Crawl and the closing art gala will commence towards the end of this semester. General responses to the art gala itself have been good; thus, using it to promote the Arts Fund should be well received and successful.
Update the student government website with relevant information about the application process, deadlines, and other sources of artistic funding that become available
Increasing the presence of relevant information on the student government website is a crucial goal for us that will be taken into account once the arts fund is further along in the creation process.
Work with art organizations and departments to increase awareness of funding opportunities
Currently, several efforts are underway to create communication infrastructure within the arts communities and to promote intercommunication. We hope that these will facilitate increasing awareness for the funding opportunities as well as generate interest in the Arts Crawl.
Ensure that the Arts Grants are publicized during annual the Arts Crawl
The Arts Grants will be an integral part of the Arts Crawl, and the promotion of them will be heavily integrated into both the planning and execution phases of the Arts Crawl.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Host student art forums
Student Art Forums have not yet started for the 2010-‐2011 school year; however, the Arts Advocacy committee has been in contact with the Undergraduate Music Forum. We are hoping that this contact will allow for a greater representation of music during the arts forums and will aid us in conducting the forums.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Ben Neal
I am extremely excited to be one of the co-‐chairs on the committee this year. Because of the development of the Arts Fund, this year is particularly exciting for the arts community. The fund will be a lasting and integral part of UNC’s arts community in the future, and I am very happy to be a part of it. Beyond the Arts Fund, I see much potential in several of our other projects to create lasting change on campus. We are working to establish a free-‐expression wall which we feel will <inally come to fruition as well as several other side-‐projects. It has also been excellent to be paired with Sarah as a co-‐chair. Since we come from very different art <ields, our bases of knowledge have complimented one another quite well, and I feel that we have been able to tackle the projects presented to us from several angles and perspectives. I am quite excited to see what the rest of the year will bring!
Sarah McGuire
The Arts Advocacy Committee this year is a driven group of students and with the wide variety of vested interests in the arts that the committee brings together, the platform points listed above should be attainable. Ben and I also have varying interests within the arts community, so hopefully between the two of us, and the ideas our committee presents we should all be able to achieve the goals listed in the Medlin platform, and ultimately facilitate better communication and appreciation between the arts on campus.
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Environmental Affairs
Sara [email protected] Sara [email protected] Will Leimenstoll [email protected] Overview of Responsibilities:
This year we have decided to structure the committee in a similar way to last year’s committee. By breaking the group into 5 subcommittees, it is easier for a large committee to develop innovate ways to approach various projects relating to the platform. These subcommittees are campus collaboration, recycling, institutional sustainability, sustainable dining and green businesses, and energy management. By creating topics that students can choose from to work closely with, the committee uses its meeting time more ef<iciently and provides for small groups to work together on innovative projects.
Committee Progress:
Campus Collaboration UNC has an extensive variety of environment-‐related student groups on campus that are working on various projects related to the university. An important role for the EAC is to facilitate communication between these groups to allow more ef<icient use of resources and avoid project overlap between different organizations EAC currently maintains a Campus Collaboration listserv comprised of the of<icers of every sustainability-‐related club on campus. We used this listserv to invite student leaders to the Carolina Green Sustainability Social that we co-‐sponsored with the Institute for the Environment and the Sustainability Of<ice during the Week of Welcome. During this event, speakers came from a variety of sustainability-‐related departments and student organizations to give a brief description of their projects and their organizations’ respective missions. It also provided time for representatives from sustainability related groups to eat local hor d'oeuvres and network with interested students looking to get more involved in the campus environmental community. Campus Collaboration was also used in the Power Vote campaign. After being approached by the National Wildlife Federation, we coordinated a meeting with student groups who would be interested in the campaign. In this way, EAC used its “connect the dots” role to facilitate collaboration and discussion amongst campus leaders. Campus Collab will be working to plan an environmental round table with all of the student groups related to environmentalism. We consolidated the list of environmental
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
leaders and began crafting an agenda largely based on needs expressed at the Vice Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee. A few EAC-‐ers and Brian Cain from the Sustainability Of<ice met to discuss possible agenda items for the environmental round table. We will be holding two round tables this school year. The <irst one will be on Campus Sustainability Day on October 27 with all of the environmental student leaders to discuss their projects, opportunities for collaboration, and ways in which we can work together to strengthen the effectiveness of the campus environmental community. We will be reporting what all of the environmental groups are doing and then write a brief for the members of the Vice Chancellor’s Sustainability Advisory Committee for submission. The second round table will be scheduled following Winter Break and will include staff and administrators and is designed to bridge the communication gap between administrators and student groups who are often working towards the same goals without realizing it.
Recycling
EAC began its work with the tailgate recycling program, Rameses Recycles, over the summer through a collaboration with Carolina Athletics Association (CAA), UNC Sport Clubs, and the Of<ice of Waste Reduction and Recycling. CAA helped with marketing and promotion while the Sports Club athletes provide the bulk of the volunteer work by handing out the trash and recycling bags to tailgaters before the games. SEAC, one of the environmental groups, has also occasionally helped by providing volunteers to staff the outreach tables in Tar Heel Town. .Rameses Recycles was successful in the home opener against Georgia Tech and received press coverage by the DTH twice prior to the program’s kickoff.
We are continuing our work with the Rameses Recycles program by helping out at the Game Day Challenge on October 30th. This is a national competition sponsored by the EPA to reduce waste at college sporting events. UNC is participating this year, and the EAC will be helping with publicity, getting vendors to compost, and researching places to donate food following events. EAC will also provide composting volunteers in the Chancellor’s box. In terms of publicity, we have been working with the PR team to create some signage. EAC members will also attempt to get a critical mass of the student section to paint up with the recycling logo or have recycling posters with the goal of attracting media attention and the jumbotron. We are also discussing the possibility of a video with the broadcasting team that we hope to get together. Carolina Athletics Association and Carolina Fever have been brought to the table to further discuss the Game Day Challenge, and we hope to <ind a way in which they can get involved.
After the Game Day Challenge, the EAC hopes to continue its work with Athletics by increasing recycling at the Dean Dome in time for basketball season. Besides athletics recycling, the recycling subcommittee brainstormed and discussed various other possible projects for the 2010-‐2011 school year. Students were most excited about an educational campaign in the residence halls, Granville, and the trash can pilot project. The committee met with Amy Preble from the Of<ice of Waste Reduction and Recycling for a “Recycling 101” chat in the student government suite as well as a brainstorming session to develop approaches to projects for the school year.
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After the recycling subcommittee decided to concentrate on a few short-‐term goals. First, they began developing a recycling education campaign geared at the residence halls. Students hope to create posters or magnets for what can and can’t be recycled. One student went to the Green Games meeting to <igure out what types of environmental education are already being incorporated into the residence halls. Students hope to use America Recycles Day on November 15 to increase recycling education on campus. They plan to hold a recycling drive on this day with the Of<ice of Waste Reduction and Recycling to collect yogurt containers and plastic bags. Additionally, students are working to get recycling at Granville Towers. Two students have taken the lead in communicating with the Granville community governors and a facility manager to meet in the week before fall break to begin this project.
The recycling subcommittee is also interested in getting more involved in the Greek community. We are currently looking into grant opportunities to purchase more recycling bins for the Greek houses.
Improve Institutional Sustainability at UNC
Throughout the year, the institutional sustainability group hopes to increase the use and popularity of hosting green events, implement educational programs to make biking and walking more favorable, and investigating materials used to clean and repair current buildings and to suggest more sustainable methods. We discussed ways to make biking/walking more favorable compared to driving, and focused on ways to make pedestrians feel safer on and off campus. We also started planning a bike/mass transit awareness day/week. We have a subcommittee member who offered to research cost of covered bike racks, and <inding funding for that type of structure on South Campus by residence halls. We also discussed setting up a survey of students who bring cars to UNC to <igure out why they feel they need to have a car at UNC and that way we can begin to tackle the problem, and reduce car usage at UNC. We are collaborating with the student government PR team to work on the survey logistics. The Roosevelt Institute contacted us because they want to collaborate on starting a bike-‐sharing program here at UNC. We hope to have him come to our meeting next week. We discussed investigating the chemicals used by the housekeeping staff, trying to increase the use of compostable materials, as well as increasing the use of composting, and trying to <ind grants to increase renewable energy production on campus. We had a committee member contact UNC housekeeping, who forwarded him to the sustainability of<ice. We will continue to press for more information about the chemicals housekeeping is using. The institutional sustainability group discussed ways to increase the use and popularity of hosting green events. The institutional sustainability group hosted Christina Lynch at our general EAC body meeting so all EAC members could obtain green events certi<ication. Within the institutional sustainability subcommittee we also had members
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
contact a lot of different student groups about getting their leaders green event certi<ied. Different people in the subcommittee contact different campus organizations as their “green event liaison” so that they can be helpful in the green event process. We also discussed ways to incentivize green events other than just the good press they bring to an organization. We want to try to team up with the DTH to provide additional publicity for green events vs. average events. We are also investigating the possibility of setting up a pilot composting station at Alpine in the Union, because they already use some compostable products, however they can’t be composted unless they are put in a composting bin rather than the normal trash. We could also train Alpine workers to man that station, meaning we wouldn’t need volunteers to prevent students from throwing normal trash into the composting.
Improving Sustainable Dining on campus and Increasing awareness and partnerships with green businesses
We met with Melissa Tinling from FLO foods about how we can <it in this year to help promote the platform point of working with CDS to promote sustainable dining and the use of a ‘real food calculator’. The subcommittee discussed talking to members of the dining board about promoting sustainable dining. One EAC member also hopes to serve as the student government member of the CDS/FLO bi-‐weekly meetings regarding sustainable dining. EAC has also discussed promoting green business on campus by collaborating with FLO and CABA to have an event that showcase sustainable restaurants in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. The Sustainable dining group contacted the dining board appointees about their plans to suggest sustainable dining options to Carolina Dining Services. One of the appointees, Hope Hering, attended a FLO meeting and Suzanne Fleishmann (on our committee) talked to her about her interest in the subject. We hope to spend more time talking to the dining board appointees to make them better educated on this issue so they can suggest these options to the dining board. Sustainable dining has decided that a main goal for them for the year is to draft a letter to the chancellor about increasing sustainable dining on campus. They hope to get a lot of professors as well as student groups to sign off on the letter. CEFS started a program of making 1a percentage of student dining local and sustainable and NC State signed off on it. We hope to use this letter to get UNC to make a goal to have a certain percentage of our food to be local and sustainable. The real food challenge suggest 20% ‘real food’ by 2020. This ‘real food’ calculation involves various aspects such as food that is sustainable, human, local, fair, etc. The group plans to spend time this semester researching goals of other schools as well as research on campus about local food to help draft a letter. They are also researching professors and other distinguished UNC staff and community to ask to sign off to endorse the letter. FLO also plans to help with this project. Sustainable Dining has a meeting set up with Amy Cooke, a professor very involved in the local food debate in Chapel Hill. Through this meeting, Sustainable Dining hopes to get feedback on research they have completed in order to begin drafting a letter.
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Increase awareness of Energy programs at UNC and encourage students to use less energy
The Subcommittee began the year with a meeting with the Energy Management department last week (Jessica O’Hara and Chris Martin). They gave us a lot of ideas to work with that were presented to the Energy management group for brainstorming. One idea that we want to pursue is promoting their save-‐energy website and reporting infrastructure. Energy Management wants students to be their ‘eyes and ears’ on campus and report when temperatures are too low or too high or when lights are left on in buildings overnight. The group brainstormed about way to promote this program such as through facebook and informational/listserv emails. They are currently in contact with Jessica O’Hara at Energy Management as well as the DELTA Interns to work on ways to communicate energy conservation to UNC students. EAC also plans to help Energy Management publicize an event awarding Morrison for recently winning an EPA national building competition for reducing its energy use by about 20% through initiatives such as reducing light wattage in outdoor hall lighting and switching to LED lights, as well as behavioral campaigns to decrease energy use by students. The group also plans to with the Residence Hall Association and Community Directors to help RA’s create programs to teach students about energy conservation. Two ways to do this are by working with RAs to give them materials about energy conservation to make into bulletin boards around the dorms. A bulletin board template has been made with facts for students about how UNC is conserving energy and how students can do so. This has, so far, been distributed to one RA in Granville and has been posted. Another way to encourage Energy Conservation in dorms is to help RA’s create programs for their residents that teach them about energy conservation. This is something we hope to incorporate to into Green Games.We have contacted Hinton James, Craige, Cobb, and Granville Community Directors (to start) to offer our services to RAs that have to make these bulletin boards and create programs. Energy Management is currently working to obtain funding to get stickers on paper towel dispensers that say “These come from Trees” (The stickers are sourced from a project called "These Come From Trees" (http://thesecomefromtrees.blogspot.com/). These Come From Trees reports an up to 29% reduction in the amount of paper towels dispensed when the sticker was present. These savings are realized not only in the reduction of the amount of trees being felled, energy used in production and transportation, and waste being dumped, but most directly in institutional costs. These Come From Trees stickers have been deployed in the thousands at universities (University of Alaska Faribanks, West Virginia University, Tulane Medical school, and Stanford to name a few) and corporations (NVIDIA, Clorox, and San Disk) across the country. So far around 50,000 stickers have been distributed.) Energy Management has contacted facilities managers to approve the stickers on paper towel dispensers and are currently looking into sources of funding. The subcommittee wants to create a 5-‐10 minutes presentation about energy conservation to give to student groups. The presentation would only take a portion of a group meeting and it would inform involved student about ways they can be saving
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
energy. However, a program similar to this began through RESPC, termed EcoReps, last year out of Energy Management discussions that EAC was involved with about ways to teach other students about energy and waste conservation. The plan of EcoReps was to send students out to talk to student groups around campus as part of a behavioral program to promote energy conservation. We are currently contacting EcoReps about ways to work with them to develop a program and also plan to present at their EcoReps training on November 6th.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Sara Mishamandani
EAC has been an exciting experience that has created a positive working environment to promote sustainability at UNC. I am able to share my passions about sustainable food and energy conservation to students who are excited to pursue projects to improve UNC. I have enjoyed meeting new friends and collaborating with different groups on campus to make progress on major issues involving campus sustainability. I have really enjoyed the partnerships with other organizations that I have made as well as collaboration with UNC staff who are always very willing to work with us. I have realized how students play an integral part in communication at UNC and I am excited to be an outlet to work with our community to educate others about what is being done by staff to improve energy conservation and other environmental measures. This makes students more excited about the issues and more willing to conserve themselves. Through partnerships and collaboration, EAC has gotten off to a very good start and I am excited to work on projects this year.
Sara Rafalson
One of my favorite parts about being on the EAC this year has been all of the opportunities for collaboration. I really have enjoyed using my role in student government to work with nontraditional partners such as the Carolina Athletics Association and Club Sports. Additionally, staff members from the Sustainability Of<ice and the Of<ice of Waste Reduction and Recycling have been very helpful in providing insight and advice every step of the way. Many times student groups and administrators are working towards the same goals, and I really think it's important to increase communication so that we are able to work together and to <it each other's needs. I believe these partnerships really have strengthened our capacity and knowledge, and I hope that other student organizations will follow our lead and collaborate more to increase the effectiveness of their organization. In addition to the partnerships, I have really enjoyed seeing committee members become engaged in student government and sharpen their leadership skills to create progressive environmental reform in the campus community. Though it can be challenging at times, the committee members are beginning to understand the inner workings of the university and have channeled their creativity and passion for environmental issues into some very meaningful work. In all, I have really enjoyed my experience as an EAC co-‐chair, and I look forward to our upcoming projects for the rest of the school year.
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Will Leimenstoll
I have thus far really enjoyed working as a co-‐chair for the Environmental Affairs committee. It has been an amazing experience, and I have learned a lot. It has been a unique opportunity to mentor new students, and make a difference in the environment on campus. I’ve also really enjoyed being able to meet with different groups and collaborate with them, as well as work with higher level people. For example, I will be meeting with Tony Patterson, the head of the Union to discuss the union renovations in the near future.
I have also enjoyed giving new students the resources to tackle the problems that they <ind important. For example, one of our <irst year members was interested in the chemicals used by the housekeeping staff, and I was able to direct him to the right people to contact, and I learned a lot about the way cleaning is done here at UNC. It’s just fun to see my peers get excited about the same things as me, and I’m so glad that I’m able to help inspire them in anyway I can.
I have also really learned a lot working with Sara Rafalson, and Sara Mishamandani. We have a great group dynamic, and we work very well together, but I also appreciate them as mentors for me. As the lone sophomore working alongside two seniors I have been able to learn so much about the university, and the environment from them, because they know so much more than I do. I have really enjoyed getting to know both of them on a working and personal level, and I feel very lucky to have been chosen to work with them!
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Global University
McKay Roozen [email protected]
Russell [email protected]
Committee Progress
Establishing the Admissions Ambassador Abroad Program:
Quite a bit of progress has been made in this area. We have met with representatives from UNC Global, the Of<ice of Undergraduate Admissions, Study Abroad, UNC Global Development, the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Center for Global Initiatives. All parties have been interested in the project and are willing to support in any way they can. We have come to the decision that AAA would be housed in admissions and that the application would appear to all students when they submit their study abroad application.
In all of these meetings we have identi<ied the following as logistical issues that need to be addressed: the training and selection for the Ambassadors, targeting transfer and graduate students and accurately portraying the advantages of the liberal-‐arts education.
Through all this communication, alumni have been targeted as important factors to this project and we have already established contact with alumni in Singapore and Hong Kong. The next step is to further establish contact with alumni and to research target schools in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing and establish contact with admissions representatives at the schools.
Establishing collaboration among international organizations:
The committee members have created a database of internationally focused organizations on campus. This includes all student groups who in some way have a global focus and their contact information. From this information, we will invite all groups to be a part of a collaborative group which will bring them all together. This will be done through a expansive listserv so that groups can more easily publicize their events and combine resources and event attendees
Establishing a Gap Year Taskforce:
The committee has been working closely with Conor Farese who is heading up Gap Year initiative through the Of<ice of Undergraduate Admissions as well through a Gap Year community. As of now, the Taskforce has been working on creating a peer advising program and a website on the Admissions website which would include testimonials of students and parents and FAQ. The peer advising program will give prospective Gap Year students a chance to talk with Gap Year students at UNC. A Gap Year Fellowship has
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already been created and will be established in the Campus Y and will fund students in their gap year initiatives. The members of the Global University committee who are focusing on this will particularly focus on technological development of the Gap Year website, structuring the scholarship as well as any research which will be relevant for the project.
The Co-Chair Prospective
McKay Roozen
I believe that the Committee has gotten off to a good start this semester. We have already secured the support from many important administrators for the Admissions Ambassador Abroad project. Having a good base of support is really important when dealing with such a large scale initiative. While the progress for establishing the relationship amongst international organizations was a little slow to begin, now that we have the database, fully accomplishing our goals should be very achievable. Lastly, the Gap Year Taskforce has made signi<icant progress with the development of the Gap Year Fellowship. I believe the Committee has made a great start and I hope the rest of my term will be <illed with even more progress.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Greek Affairs
Jamison [email protected]
Kaitlyn [email protected]
Committee Progress
Create a Publicity/Communication chair for communication between OFSL, Student Government and Greeks
After meeting with Jenny Levering and Kayte Frye we decided, based on their suggestion, not to add a Publicity/Communication chair. They thought this was unnecessary as they (Jenny, Kayte, and the rest of the OFSL) could communicate directly with the Co-‐Chairs of the Greek Affairs Committee (Kaitlyn and Jamison) and felt that adding an additional person would only complicate communication between the groups.
Alumni and Student Legal Services (SLS) team for responsibility and risk overview ALE document outlining legal rights and responsibilities
After meeting with Dorothy Bernholtz of Student Legal Services in the beginning of the semester, addressing this platform point has become our major focus. Ms. Bernholtz showed so much enthusiasm in helping us help the Greek community in knowing their legal rights, we decided to co-‐sponsor a Know Your Rights event open to any UNC Greek af<iliation. The event will be held Nov. 18, 2010 in the Great Hall, and will combine humor with accurate legal advice from Student Legal Services and CH police department. The Greek organizations in attendance will receive free, wallet-‐size Know Your Rights cards, enough for each member in their respective organization.
Since the event will not be held for another month, Jamison and I are busy organizing funding, advertising and structure of the night’s events. We need funding to order the cards from Staples and for production services in the Great Hall, and hope to visit all of the chapter meetings to advertise the event. We have included committee members in brainstorming advertising ideas and their eventual execution, and in reviewing skit content and the layout of the night.
We hope this event will help remind students that they, especially as representatives of the Greek community, have many responsibilities in their day-‐to-‐day life. In light of the scandals and legal problems some of the organizations went through last year, and in years past, an event like this seems appropriate and necessary. It will be fun, yet informative, and will not solely target <irst-‐year students.
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Greek Week Implementation
Greek Week is primarily organized and coordinated by the Greek Week Steering committee; however, we are viewing this platform point as an ongoing task as we prepare for the event-‐-‐which occurs in the spring. As the semester draws closer to an end we will give more attention to this project and allow our ‘Events’ Subcommittee to help aid the Greek Week Steering Committee in the planning process. It is our hope that the Greek Affairs Committee will be able to play an active role throughout Greek Week and to help ensure the success of the event we plan on publicizing to all of the Greek organizations on campus. Since this year will only be the second year the event has occurred in many years we are adamant about garnering participation from chapters on all four of the Greek Councils. By doing so, we hope to bring together members of the four councils for greater collaboration within the community.
Support Green Reps (Greek Sustainability Council)Green Greek Games project with GSC
Prior to the start of the semester the Greek Affairs Committee approached the Greek Sustainability Council about collaborating together for certain projects/platform points that both groups shared. One of the projects that the Greek Sustainability Council is currently working on is the Teaching About Being Sustainable program (TABS). This program will encourage students on campus, including members of Greek organizations, to participate in collecting the tabs off the tops of drink cans to recycle so that the aluminum can be reused. We are currently working with the GSC to publicize this initiative and to gain participation from all of the Greek organizations to compete amongst themselves to see which chapter can collect the most tabs.
Provide living space for Greeks (Granville)
The NPHC and GAC organizations do not have housing given to or reserved for them by UNC. We believe there are numerous bene<its that come from having one location where all events and meetings can be held, members can bond, and supplies can be stored. In the fall of 2009, Granville Towers showed a lot of interest in becoming a place where these organizations could have a solid foundation. It has come to our attention that this idea has been brought up again, and being presented to several of the chapters already.
As we do not have a stake in this project yet, we want to show Granville and the organizations our support for the idea in a helpful and proper manner. I believe this will become more of a hot topic and project in the spring semester, because we are focusing much of our time on addressing legal responsibilities within these communities. In the mean time we have started collecting data and gauging interest of the idea with a 10-‐question survey sent to all Greek presidents. The Greek Needs subcommittee is in the process of evaluating these surveys and <inding new ways to understand this issue.
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Provide Meeting Space for Greeks
We are currently still in the researching process of trying to <ind both additional advertising and meeting space for Greek organizations. Our ‘Greek Needs’ subcommittee has been given the task of <inding which organizations in the four councils could bene<it most from this additional space. They are analyzing and interpreting survey results obtained from all of the chapter presidents to determine how to best address the needs of Greeks. Our initial observations drawn from the survey that Kaitlyn and Jamison sent out at the beginning of the semester are that most, if not all, Greek chapters indicated they could stand to bene<it from more advertising space and that the Greek Alliance Council and the National Pan-‐Hellenic Council could stand to bene<it from more meeting space given their lack of houses. Moving forward, we will focus our efforts more on these issues until we can gain more information from the research process.
Co-Chair Perspective
Jamison Carpenter
The Greek Affairs Committee is facing a challenging year after all of the media attention Greek organizations received in the 2009-‐2010 academic year. This summer, Kaitlyn and I were able to get organized quickly so that we could prioritize our platform points and seek out the interest of other groups we wanted to work with this year-‐-‐such as Student Legal Services and the Greek Sustainability Council.
Although I feel the Greek Affairs Committee is largely still in the initial steps of many projects, I am not discouraged in the slightest. Within the next couple of months we will have made great headway on many of the platform points put forth by Hogan Medlin and by Kaitlyn and I. It is a challenge to consistently <ind tasks for all of our committee members to work on but we have given each subcommittee some ideas and goals to work with so that they can work as a unit amongst themselves.
I know that both Kaitlyn and I have put forth a lot of time and effort in organizing the ‘Know Your Rights” Seminar and I hope that we will be able to use the success of this event as motivation for our committee members to continue to work towards the platform points we’ve set for them.
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Kaitlyn Barnes
Working through and organizing the platform and our own personal interests in Greek Affairs was not hard this past summer. Jamison and I had a lot of fun and found that delegating, researching and accomplishing tasks were easy between the two of us.
With the creation of our committee though, I’m <inding it harder to get things done. It’s dif<icult making sure everyone has something to work on and making sure it’s something they want to work on. I am also concerned that our committee is not diverse enough from a Greek standpoint. Only a couple members are from GAC and NPHC organizations; Jamison and I have plans to encourage more of these students to join our committee in the coming weeks.
Overall our committee members have been great; we have about 15 to 20 members who come on a consistent basis. They are full of ideas and seem excited about the coming year. It is now Jamison’s and my job to organize each meeting so it is ef<icient, fun and keeps them coming back. The Know Your Rights event will be unique and helpful, and has served as an ideal platform point to start the year off with. Our members have already come up with a fun diversity event that we can hold in the spring-‐-‐an idea neither Jamison nor I had thought of.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Outreach
Wevine [email protected]
Jagir [email protected]
Commi%ee Progress
“I’m a Tarheel” Video- Create a video to highlight the diverse identities within the Carolina community.
An overarching theme for MADO this year is to broaden the de<inition of diversity in order to make it into a term that is more inclusive. This is one of the reasons we decided to change the name of our committee from Minority Affairs to Multicultural Affairs. In an effort to help people realize diversity within their own lives, we are creating a video with the help of students and university of<icials. The concept comes from the similar video that is played at halftime during football games. Participants express the identity they are most comfortable with and end with “and I’m a Tarheel.” The idea is that diversity comes in different forms whether it is nationality, race, religion, or even major. However despite our differences we all still share a similarity because we are Tarheels. We have <ilmed our committee members, but will continue to <ilm university of<icials and other interested students. The <inal video will be posted on the MADO section of the Executive Brach website.
Host Mix‐It‐Up Day with Carolina Dining Services at Rams Head Dining Hall
The Mix It Up Dinner took place on Thursday, October 28, 2010 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. This year we partnered with Campus Y’s Students for the Advancement of Race Relations (SARR), Carolina Dining Services as well as getting volunteers from a variety of other organizations on campus. Students came to Rams Head and were invited to literally mix it up by sitting with a different group. Participants then took part in the bead activity lead by trained facilitators. The bead activity served as a visual interpretation of the diversity present in the lives and relationships of the participants. This year we improved the quality of the facilitators by requiring that all facilitators participate in training sessions. In past years, participants expressed that they were unable to understand the purpose of the bead activity. Thus in order to ensure that Mix it Up Day is as productive as possible we needed to properly prepare the facilitators. In addition, following the theme of a broadened de<inition of diversity we attempted to broaden the discussion after the bead activity. Our hope is that facilitators would lead participants to examine the presence of other diverse identities in their life i.e. sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status. Facilitators also helped students to realize that just because they had the same bead colors on their string doesn’t mean diversity isn’t present in their lives. Overall we felt that Mix it Up Day was successful and we received positive review from those who participated. However we had some
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suggestions for improvement from the participants and facilitators. An idea for improvement is to add more structure to the event and to make a greater effort to educate people about the purpose of Mix it Up Day before the event. This year we began to add more structure to the event by limiting the activities to one section of the dining hall, by the Chop House. However we can further add structure by having some sort of presentation. So participants are required to remain in a certain section to view the presentation. We also had some students who did not know what Mix it Up Day was about. So we need to make a greater effort to publicize the event and its purpose.
Create a Diversity Celebration Week
The co-‐chairs are currently working with UNITAS to create a diversity celebration week that incorporates events from various organizations as well as educational sessions that address various aspects of diversity. We are currently developing an outline of the week that we scheduled to be held the week of March 21st 2011. Each day will focus on one of the following aspects of diversity racial/ethnic, sexual orientation, religious, and socioeconomic status. The purpose of this week is to encourage collaboration among the various organizations on campus. Further, we want each organization to be able to express in some way whether through an event or advocacy session their perspective on diversity. We also seek to center the week around any performances or special events that relate to diversity. The goal is to make this week interactive and inclusive so that a variety of people want to participate in some way.
The Co-Chair Perspectives
Wevine Fidelis
Overall I am very excited about the upcoming year and the events MADO has planned. I’m optimistic of these events because of our new perspective on making diversity a more inclusive term. In the past some groups may have felt left out because they had the notion that they were not diverse in the traditional sense. However, through our events MADO seeks to educate students that diversity also applies to beliefs, thoughts, and opinions. Despite these differences, we also encourage <inding common ground and ways to collaborate.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Jagir Patel
What I loved most about MADO last year was the fun yet serious atmosphere of our meetings. I think Wevine and I are slowly making progress to having our meetings be fun and serious at the same time. I am truly excited about how MADO has immediately taken off with its programming for this year. We met with Dr. Houston and she gave us amazing ideas for the year, challenging our ideas and perspectives of diversity. Next, we began planning for Mix It Up dinner. This year, the dinner hopes to expand upon the conventional de<initions of diversity. Our upcoming MADO events after Mix It Up are going to be where our committee members play a greater role in de<ining the year. During this time is when I will be most ecstatic about what MADO has to offer within our university community.
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Public Safety
Meghan [email protected]
Calvin Lewis [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
The Safety Committee serves to address and communicate student safety concerns to the University administration, the department of Public Safety, and the Town of Chapel Hill. The committee works with other student safety initiatives such as Safety and Security Committee and SafeWalk to gain feedback and address concerns.
Committee Progress
Develop an electronic template where students can access up-to-date security information regarding the UNC Campus and surrounding areas.
The committee has build connected with the current administration and the Carolina Alert program to further upcoming safety endeavors such as Rave Guardian, Safe Walkers, Campus Lighting, and Bus Comprehensibility.
ProgressThe committee has created an updated website for Safety Committee with easily accessible contact information for feedback and speci<ic relevant information for Safety Concerns (now Halloween information)
We have developed an updated comprehensive safety brochure accessible electronically and generated a modi<ied brochure with information speci<ic to Halloween safety including SafeWalk, RaveGuardian, SafeWalk etc.to be distributed along with our website information on an upcoming campus event (Quad Day) to be held the week of Halloween
Establish a committee of Resident Advisors (RAs) that deals specifically with security. At least one member of the Resident Hall Association (RHA) in each community should be the designated Safety Representative.
We have a committee member (Carmichael Governor) liaison between the Safety committee and RHA to ensure residents are having their safety needs met. Several members of the committee have attended RHA meeting to invite open communication and collaboration between our initiatives especially for holding post-‐Franklin street Halloween events to promote safe return
The committee is maintaining information on updates from the DPS of<icers assigned to RA safety leaders and Community Directors at each individual dorm, DPS acts as
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
speci<ic Safety Representative in their assigned responsibilities in overseeing complaints reported from student residents and Community Directors
Appoint designated go-betweens that relay information between the students and DPS.
The committee has worked with DPS to have of<icer Megan Howard in attendance at meetings to contribute relevant insight and maintain open lines of communication between our own initiatives and those led by DPS
We plan to relay important DPS information (especially regarding Halloween) at upcoming Quad Day for the Safety Committee so that students are informed of necessary proceedings and offerings
The Co-Chair Perspective
Meghan Cannon
After a month leading the committee, multiple initiative have come to our attention as we have been noti<ied of concerns of various groups. Among these contacts, content has included requests to contribute insight to the pilot of Just Call Campaign, concerns about pedestrian safety, P2P complaints, parking deck problems, and lighting remarks. It has been worthwhile using our team to fuel all of these safety concerns into our existing agendas and projects or using our knowledge to appropriately redirect such concerns. Working with various other organizations through which safety is a mutual priority has been rewarding and I will continue to make use of these resources. As our principle focus has been on Halloween thus far, we have been able to open up doors of communication that we will undoubtedly use for the rest of the year.
Calvin Lewis
We have had a very successful start to a new year. Transitioning into a new school year has not been a problem for our committee and there have been no holes in the effort put forth by our committee. So far we have managed to network and connect many organizations on campus as well as support RHA in publicizing and maintaining public safety. Through contacts within DPS and meeting with administrators, we have established what means are necessary to continue to support public safety in the most ef<icient manner. Though our main focus is currently Halloween, we have already started planning on how other safety points will be addressed throughout the remainder of the year.
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Public Service and Advocacy
Ashley [email protected]
Will [email protected]
Committee Progress
STRETCH Conference
The STRETCH Conference was held on October 8 and 9 in the Upendo Room of SASB, with the help of the Campus Y, the Center for Public Service, and the Multi-‐cultural Affairs and Diversity Outreach Committee of Student Government. This two-‐day event was focused on the word “Diversity” and delving into Bridging the Gap between different cultures. Key speakers included Terri Houston, who taught us the importance of loving ourselves, Sean Kiernan, who discussed gender expression within the LGBT community, and Annie Clark, who discussed the intricacies of interpersonal violence among different cultures. We closed the Conference with a Diversity/Privilege Walk, a meaningful, enlightening, and thought-‐provoking activity that inspired us to think about the topic of diversity on a broader and more critical way. We are excited and already planning for STRETCH 2011.
Enhance Collaboration between Service Organizations on Campus
We have been working to create a list of organizations which incorporate service into their work on campus, and we are <inding that the majority of campus organizations have a service aspect to them! We will be holding the <irst Service Organization Collaboration Assembly in mid-‐November, and are excited for the productivity, collaboration, and effectiveness of this important event.
Service Event at C-TOPS
One of our committee members, Kira Lumsden, has been working on this platform point and contacting the Of<ice of New Student and Carolina Parent Programs to meet about scheduled service events at C-‐TOPS next summer (and hopefully in the summers to come) to show UNC students that service is an important part of the Carolina community.
TABS Project
After talking with the Environmental Affairs and Greek Affairs Committees of Student Government, the Of<ice of Waste Reduction and Recycling, the Residence Hall Association, and the Greek Sustainability Council, PSAC is at the brink of debuting the TABS (Teaching About Being Sustainable) project, an initiative aimed to gather can tabs in order to encourage recycling and better and purer use of the aluminum, and give them to the waste and recycling plant to melt into aluminum. The Ronald McDonald House receives 40 cents for every pound of can tabs that we submit, and this will also be
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
a great way to publicize the Ronald McDonald House and what they do. One of our members, Brittany Reeves, has taken this project under her wing and is doing an awesome job!
Brown Bag Lunch Series
With the leadership of committee member Katya Ortiz, PSAC kicked-‐off the 2010-‐2011 Brown Bag lunch series in October with a speaker from Relay for Life, as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She shared her story and the ways that UNC students can get involved to help <ight cancer.
Address Local Hunger and Homelessness
We are working with the NC School of Science and Math, as well as other campuses across the state, to break the world record for the largest food drive in February, and committee member Hunter Bryson is our delegate for that event. We also are sitting on the SITCH (Student Initiatives to Combat Homelessness) Board and serve on the Community Participation Workgroup with the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness, and we are planning Project Homeless Connect 2010 with these groups, to be held in early November.
Participate actively in the Build-A-Block Campaign
We have talked to the organizers as well as Lynn Blanchard, the director of the Carolina Center for Public Service, and will lead the efforts to discuss and critically think about the reasons why we need to build these houses for UNC workers. We will address everything from a livable wage paid to UNC employees to affordable housing and cultural differences.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Ashley Patton
Overall, I believe that the beginning of this school year has gone quite well. After being a bit nervous about committee member numbers, several more applications rolled in and we were able to form an amazing committee of committed and hard-‐working students. Our <irst big project was the annual STRETCH conference, explained above. Even though I had an amazing time on the Saturday that I was able to attend, I am somewhat disappointed with the numbers of people that showed up. I think that since there was a home football game, the numbers were much lower than usual. I think that the attendants, however, truly enjoyed themselves and took a lot from it. In addition, we have had our <irst brown bag lunch series and the committeeheads for that said that those numbers were also not very high. Because of this, I think we need to to work on publicizing events and have someone from our committee specialize in PR issues or work with the PR committee more. Other projects are going great because of our hard-‐working members, including the TABS project, service collaboration, homelessness help and advocacy, and the NCSSM food drive. We are continuing to work on the CTOPS service event, fundraising for the Public Service
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scholarship, and an alternative winter break and are looking forward to starting work on NC Service Month as we get closer towards March.
Will Thomason
I am proud of our committee members and the work that they have already done this year to make PSAC ef<icient, effective, collaborative, and productive. We have an awesome momentum to keep pushing us to do the great things planned ahead. I am personally excited for our tentative Alternative Winter Break trip to address issues surrounding refugee resettlement, Service N.C. month in March, and the Public Service Scholarship given to someone each year. With an awesome co-‐chair and a great committee, I am so thankful to be able to witness the ongoing awesome-‐ness of the Public Service and Advocacy Committee!
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Student Body Outreach
Caitlin Murray [email protected]
Thomas Clay [email protected] Committee Progress
Multimedia News Update
• Student Body Outreach will create a new brief weekly news video segment in partnership with the Journalism school, STV, and Student Government. This update will include a message from Hogan, interviews from students of current topics on campus/across the world, showcase events or projects that week, and more.
This project—which the committee took on as our <irst and almost only focus—has morphed into something very different than what was <irst imagined. Ian Lee and Beth (his EA) have taken point with creating a brief weekly news segment in partnership with Carolina Week in the Journalism school. This program should include most of the main point of this platform point. Thus, Caitlin and Clay (along with our committee) have decided to move forward in establishing a partnership with STV to create a different kind of TV short that distinguishes itself with humor and a replicable, collaborative model with campus organizations. Because of a lack of effort on our part we are still in the early stages of developing the show with STV. However, the committee has developed a great sketch of how the show would work and have <ilmed the <irst version of an introduction. Clay and Caitlin are currently shopping this pilot around with the STV folks and will be meeting with their board this week.
Conduct focus groups with a wide cross-section of the Student Body to investigate how students find out about events/campus organizations a
This semester the committee has been looking into new ways to expand our reach to students and have decided to move forward on this platform point next semester.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Caitlin
At this early point in the year I think that the Outreach committee’s main concentration is refocusing itself with its new purpose under the Medlin Administration. Last year the committee was targeted as a publicity center for student government and student organizations. With the creation of the PR team, the Outreach committee has shifted its focus to being a creative outlet for Student Government to reach the student body. We see ourselves as think tank for ideas centering on how to better inform students of what is going on in campus. With our main project (This Week at Carolina segment) we are trying to tap into ways that will reach students beyond the overused publicity means of
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social networks, painting cubes, and passing out <lyers. I really believe that our segment will catch the attention of students on campus and hopefully become something that they recognize as a part of the Carolina culture. I believe that the success to this committee will be collaborating with other student organizations like STV and working with them to brainstorm new ways of informing students how to become involved.
Clay
To be honest, it’s been tough to build a committee. The way the open application process worked yielded us few applicants and even fewer committee members. The application sent out by Student Government included the committee description from last year that basically described the PR team that was created in the middle of the school year last year. Thus, I think many applicants were confused and applied to the PR team because the Outreach committee seemed irrelevant. I’m de<initely not trying to pass blame on anyone but I think this was a determining factor. It might have been my and Caitlin’s fault for not sending in a description on time. Anyway, we’re are now up and running after a slightly bumpy start.
I’m really passionate about our platform points—probably because I was lucky and got to help craft some of them. I believe that Outreach will be a key part of Student Government if it can ful<ill its mission to serve as a think tank and incubator for new ideas about how to connect Student Government to students—but also to connect students to organizations, students to other students, and organizations to other organizations. Our <irst project—the This Week at Carolina TV short—will do just that. It’s a new, untried way of enabling connections between students and what’s happening around them. It’s going to be more than a series of commercials; it’s a new technology to strengthen and expand the Carolina community.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Student Life
Olivia [email protected]
Taylor [email protected]
Committee Progress
Organize student groups by genre at Fall Fest so they can be more easily located. The goal is to increase on-campus involvement by helping students find organizations that match their interests.
All student organizations that participated in Fall Fest were organized by type and color. Academic groups were designated by a white banner, Activist-‐Political groups by a red banner, Cultural-‐International groups by a blue banner, Fraternity-‐Sorority groups by a silver banner, Media groups by a yellow banner, Performance groups by a black banner, Religious groups by a purple banner, Recreation-‐Sports groups by a green banner, Service groups by a gold banner, Special interest groups by an orange banner, and Student Government groups by a blue banner. Banners were constructed with vinyl and PVC pipes and hung at the <irst table for each section. See below for the color-‐coded chart.
Create a site map of club location by type to be used at Fall Fest. The site map will be e-mailed to all first year students prior to the event for reference. Explore the possibility of printing this map in advance copies of the DTH and having signs at both ends of South Road the night of Fall Fest.
As mentioned above, all organizations were organized by type and color. Hogan sent an e-‐mail to students the Friday before Fall Fest directing them to a website designed speci<ically for the event. On the website, students could download a map of the table set ups on South Road as well as a color-‐coordinated organizational chart. See the appendix for the map and chart.
Collaborate with the Technology Committee to conduct outreach to new student organizations for online resources education, campus connection possibilities, and any other services the organization may need to succeed.
A member of our committee serves as a liaison between the Student Life and Technology & Web Services Committees. She attends weekly meetings for both committees, and reports back each week with what progress has been made. Currently, we are exploring ways to best reach out to student organizations.
Increase education regarding the use of online resources, such as CollegiateLink, to aid organizations in their success.
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As mentioned above, the liaison between the Student Life and Technology & Web Services committees is working to determine the most useful and productive way to reach out to student organizations. We will work with representatives from CollegiateLink to train our committee members on how to use the program. We are considering ways to make the URL for UNC’s site more accessible for students. Once our committee members are comfortable with the site, we will reach out to campus organizations.
Host a feedback suggestion stand in the Pit once a month where students can voice their needs or concerns. Continue to increase Student Government’s presence among the student body by promoting increased outreach to students.
We will borrow Carolina Leadership Development’s large cardboard cut-‐out of Hogan to use in the Pit as we ask for suggestions from students about Student Government. Students will be able to post their ideas and suggestions on the cut-‐out using post-‐it notes.
We have also created a subcommittee entitled Organization Outreach. The purpose of this subcommittee is to act as a liaison between Student Government and campus organizations in an effort to increase publicity and student involvement across campus. This subcommittee is in charge of updating the “Organization of the Week” feature on the Student Life tab of the Student Government website. Since this subcommittee is working on a completely new project, we have given its members freedom in coming up with other ideas for increasing organization awareness. The members of the subcommittee have expressed interest in creating an organization search engine on the Student Government website on which students can input their interests and then receive a list of organizations that match those interests.
Student Life looks forward to taking Carolina Marketplace to a larger, more publicized level. He will host the Carolina Marketplace once a semester instead of once a year to allow a larger number of student organizations and businesses to participate.
Because our committee meetings started a little later this year, we have decided to host one Carolina Marketplace spanning over either two or three weeks during the second semester to allow for a more inclusive and successful event. There is a subcommittee dedicated to this project, and members of this subcommittee have been drafting e-‐mails, including a ten question survey, which can be sent out to campus organizations to gauge their interest in being part of the event. They have also been brainstorming ways to categorize participating groups for the event and considering food options.
Work with Career Services to better organize and facilitate the Career Services Fair. Collaborate on advertisement, feedback, and event management.
Members of the subcommittee dedicated to working on this platform will be meeting with Tim Stiles, Associate Director of Career Services, to discuss ways our groups can collaborate. This meeting will allow us to determine the next steps to take.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Co-Chair Perspective
Olivia Hammill
Life as part of the Student Life Committee has been great so far – we have already started working on all of our projects for the year, something we hope will prove to be bene<icial as next semester approaches. We have a fairly large committee this year, but dividing everyone into subcommittees has proven to be quite successful. By using subcommittees, we can ensure that there is always someone tackling one of our committee goals. We have a group of driven, committed, and enthusiastic committee members, so I have no doubt that we will be able to keep the momentum going all year. More work can always be done, but I am particularly pleased with the progress that has been made thus far.
Taylor Mercado
I feel that the committee has been wonderful thus far! I have truly enjoyed working with the committee members and getting to know each of their capabilities and ambitions. We have a wonderful group of people in our committee and each of them are truly dedicated and want to do wonderful things for Carolina. I look forward to getting to know the members even better and forming friendships that go far beyond the business of the Student Life committee. Additionally, I am very excited that we have decided to do Carolina Men’s Networking Night again this year. The members of that subcommittee have already been brainstorming locations, guests, and food ideas to plan and prepare a wonderful event. The committee has been working very hard and I am excited to see where else we can take the committee throughout the rest of the year!
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Technology & Web [email protected]
Committee Progress
Tech & Web will assist ITS and the Tech and Web committee in publicizing technical resources available to UNC students.
IT groups on campus offer many services to UNC faculty, students, and staff. However, many of these services are unknown, especially to students. The Tech and Web committee, in coordination with the Student Technology Advisory Board, created a <lyer, which can be found at http://www.unc.edu/studgov/tech<lyer, to highlight the most valuable of these resources.
ITS funded the printing of the <inished <lyer and the RAM Shop distributed it to every incoming undergraduate at CTOPS. The <lyer has also been distributed to Cabinet and every RA in Housing, and was made the focus of at least one ResNET presentation. It will be shortly distributed to the members of Student Congress.
Instead of continuing the Tar Heel Tech Fair, ITS and Student Government both decided that the best course of action was to spend our time and efforts publicizing tech resources using different venues and means to reach the largest number of students possible.
The Tech and Web committee is currently evaluating other methods of distributing the <lyer, particularly to graduate students, and will soon begin the <lyer revision process.
Tech & Web will collaborate with ITS and the Tech and Web committee to introduce Apple laptops into the CCI program.
ITS administrators involved with the CCI program are aware of the growing Apple laptop use and students’ desire to incorporate these laptops into the CCI program. We expect more information on this issue in the spring.
The committee will continue to provide individual website training and support to student organizations.
We have continued our twice-‐weekly of<ice hours, and have had several student organization representatives come to the Student Government suite or email our listserv with questions about their Joomla! website or AFS-‐hosted website. We are continuing to work with the Division of Student Affairs to escalate problems and plan
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
for the future of AFS space and Joomla! websites with the release of CollegiateLink. The committee will presently be receiving a test CollegiateLink website so we can explore the capability of the system and be able to best advise student organizations on their website options.
The committee will keep students updated on the tools available to student organizations for website management.
The Division of Student Affairs’ new student organization management system, CollegiateLink, was released earlier this semester. At this point the system is primarily being used for student organization formal recognition. CollegiateLink will be sending a representative to the school next month to provide training sessions for administrators and students, and the Division of Student Affairs is planning to publicize the program to students in January. The Tech and Web committee will assist the Division in its planning and publicity.
The committee shall seek student advice and opinions about what content students desire to see on the ConnectCarolina site. Having student opinions reflected will increase the efficiency and use of ConnectCarolina.
The Tech and Web committee has been actively involved with the ConnectCarolina team by offering suggestions and <iling bug reports on the system. Two student components of the system have not yet been released—grades and transcripts, which will be coming at the end of this semester, and advising (for those who entered the University in Fall 2009 or later), which will be released this spring. This semester, the ConnectCarolina Campus Solutions developers are focusing on releasing the <inal features and not on major changes to the released functionality, such as registration.
The ConnectCarolina team is planning on forming a User Group to advise the project on enhancements consisting of faculty, staff, and student representatives. This committee will determine the relative priority of the many enhancement requests made to the ConnectCarolina team, and Tech and Web plans to be an integral part of the committee and to represent the student body in its discussions. In the spring, once we have more concrete methods of reporting and ranking suggestions, we will reach out to the student body and student leaders for their feedback and suggestions.
The committee will seek to improve the ease of use of iTunes U for students by looking for ways for student organizations to easily record important events and get this content posted.
This semester, the Tech and Web committee has pursued two main avenues for the improving the ease of use of iTunes U for students.
First, Tech and Web committee has been given administrator access to the student section of the university’s iTunes U page. Having administrator access has allowed us to modify the student section interface to make it more user-‐friendly. Additionally, student government now has the ability to upload content to iTunes U giving any student groups a point of contact for uploading any media they may have. Our long term goal is to have
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a permanent role in student government for assisting in the administration of the students’ portion of iTunes U.
Second, we recognize that the primary barrier to making iTunes U more useful to students is the limited availability of tools to capture events that student groups would like to post on iTunes U. As a <irst step in breaking down this barrier, Tech and Web has compiled a list of all media resources offered to students on campus. Our next step is to <ind the best method to publish this list, so that students can be aware of what is available to them.
Ad-Hoc Projects
Live@edu
Last semester ITS, in cooperation with Student Government, made the decision to outsource student email to Microsoft’s Live@edu email solution. We are excited about this transition as students will soon be receiving a much more powerful, comprehensive set of services providing not only email, but also calendaring and tools for collaboration. Nevertheless, Student Government is committed to ensuring that the system provided to students, as well as the transition process itself, are what best <it the needs of the student body.
To this end, Tech and Web, in coordination with the PR team, has been involved in biweekly meetings with ITS about the Live@edu rollout process. We receive updates on the current state of the project, raise concerns about any roadblocks we think may arise, and request features that we think will bene<it students. Additionally, we act as a liaison between ITS and the Executive Board of Student Government for when an of<icial student opinion is needed.
We in Tech and Web would like to express just how accommodating ITS has been throughout the entire planning process. ITS administrators have been incredibly receptive to all of our feedback and feature requests and have truly devoted themselves to providing the best possible service for students.
Student Congress
Until early November, the databases that stored all information on the Student Congress website, including appropriations information, were hosted and controlled by a former Student Government member on his personal server in California. Recent security changes made by ITS alerted us to the situation and provided the former member an impetus for transferring the hosting and control over to the University. Thanks to the Division of Student Affairs, the information is now hosted on their servers, located in the basement of Teague. Tech and Web facilitated the transfer process and is continuing to set the technical foundation of the Student Congress website in order by updating the permissions on the Student Congress website to re<lect the current Congress administration and has started the process of looking for an underclassman who would be interested in the technical maintenance and development of the Congress web applications.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Deputy CIO
ITS’s search for a new Deputy CIO is drawing to a close; they have narrowed down the possible candidates to three <inalists. These three <inalists recently came to the university to present on their view on the role of the Deputy CIO as well as their ability to <ill this roll.
A Tech and Web co-‐chair attended all three presentations, taking notes on each of the candidates. After all three, we discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate and provided feedback to ITS to assist in their hiring, and look forward to working with the selected candidate.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Max Beckman-Harned
How exciting it is to be doing IT policy at a time of great technical change for the University! In the next couple of weeks, both Student Central and the Oracle UNC Calendar will say their <inal goodbyes and we will be left with the much newer and more capable ConnectCarolina and Microsoft Exchange systems. When I graduate in May, the current antiquated email system will graduate with me and Microsoft’s Live@edu suite, a more powerful email, calendaring, and collaboration suite will be rolled out to all students. Ben and I are using Live@edu to collaboratively write this document—in fact, as I type this I can see Ben is editing his perspective section.
There have been rough spots in the road—ConnectCarolina can be convoluted and complicated, and I’m sure there will be growing pains when Live@edu is <inally released, but I am using my three years of UNC IT experience to try to ease those pains as much as possible, to foresee what we can and smooth what we cannot.
I’m pleased to say that the Tech and Web committee is the largest it has been in the time I’ve been at UNC. I’m still working on delegating tasks and helping the committee members come into their own, but I have high hopes for them and for the future of our IT at UNC and our little committee.
Tech and Web has had a strong beginning and we will keep on working and acting for the good of the student body. We have a couple of projects not long enough along to mention here, and we hope to be able to tell the campus about them soon!
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Ben Hawks
Overall, I have highly enjoyed my <irst semester as a Tech and Web co-‐chair! In the past couple of months, I have learned a great deal about the technology issues facing campus and am reassured by all of the capable people that I have met tackling them.
This semester, Max and I have seen some pretty signi<icant changes to the Tech and Web committee. Our committee membership has doubled since last year, and the male-‐female ratio of the committee is at an all-‐time high! Our members have done solid work so far, especially with iTunes U, but I would really like to further expand their roles on the committee.
The relationships cultivated with ITS in the recent years by Max and my predecessor Andrew Phillips continue to bear fruit. Our friends from ITS on the Live@edu committee, including Kathy Kyzer and Tim McGuire, have worked hard to satisfy all of my (and de<initely Max’s) concerns. Debra Beller with ConnectCarolina has been incredibly open about the state of the system and is always willing to listen to our complaints.
With Live@edu and ConnectCarolina, the university is undergoing signi<icant technological change. Although not everything is/will be perfect, I am optimistic about the future of technology on campus.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
University Services
Marissa [email protected]
Committee Progress
“Full-Lot” System in Cobb Deck
After dividing up jobs in our committee meetings, we had multiple committee members contact DPS to work on the process of installing a full lot sign in Cobb Deck. Another group of committee members contacted Campus Facilities to work on the process of installation. Finally, another group worked on calculating data to demonstrate the necessity of installing a full lot sign in Cobb Deck. After two weeks, we made progress by talking with the director of DPS and Campus Facilities. The sign has been installed in Cobb Deck and we are now working with DPS to ensure that it is fully functional, what times it is in operation and how it works to create a better process of traf<ic <low. This process has been a struggle in that many of the directors do not readily respond to email or phone calls; however, we will continue to discuss the process of activation with DPS and with Campus Facilities.
UNC OneCard
The committee has investigated additional methods for students to add value to their expense account. The possibilities discussed thus far include an option for students to bill their student account and also the implementation of additional credit card carriers. We will continue to speak with the UNC OneCard of<ice to evaluate the practicality of these options.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Jim Broughman
I am thus far very pleased with the progress of this committee. Members have shown strong enthusiasm and initiative with regard to the progress of our platform points. I am impressed not only by our progress towards completion of the platform, but also with the quality of group interaction. As I am new to this committee, I have bene<itted from serving with Marissa, who is the returning University Services Co-‐Chair. Marissa and I work very well together and are both very excited about the commitment of our committee’s members.
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Marissa Gluck
The process of working with DPS and Campus Facilities has been quite frustrating. “Red Tape” is often an interesting factor in getting things accomplished on campus. Though our team has been working really well together, it can often be dif<icult to instill a sense of progress in committee members when directors and other administrators are not responsive to student dialogue. This is always an issue with working on a project as students on campus when adults are needed to facilitate the process. We will continue to help students in our committee to learn how to better work with administrators. In hopes of changing the process with card <illing, we will help committee members to better understand how to communicate with each other and administrators.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Women Affairs
Allison Howard [email protected]
Billy [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
Committee Progress
One Act Women’s Affairs is attempting to collaborate and reach out to the student population about what One Act is. One Act is a movement at UNC, where the main focus is prevention, with ways to help prevent sources of interpersonal violence such as assault, rape and domestic abuse. Women’s Affairs is helping publicize and strengthen One Act’s presence on campus so people can be aware of possible prevention before differing forms of interpersonal violence can happen.
Better collaboration with Women’s Center Women’s Affairs is focusing on improving the visibility and the services offered by the Women’s Center. Student Government feels very passionate about increasing the visibility of the Women’s Center, and we also hope to help the campus be more aware of the events, options and opportunities that the Women’s Center offers.
Consolidated Gender Resources Handout Women’s affairs is working on compiling all resources and contact information for women’s and gender issues on campus and creating a concise handout to be distributed to incoming <irst-‐years and all Carolina students. This handout will also promote collaboration across campus among various groups working on women’s issues.
Women’s Health AwarenessWomen’s affairs is planning an educational event so students can become informed about what reproductive health services, and other women’s health services, are covered under the new UNC student health insurance. Furthermore, the event will also feature a question and answer period for students about other women’s health care services are offered locally and on campus—including presentations from local and campus groups.
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The Co-Chair Perspective
Allison Howard
I’ve really enjoyed getting to know our committee and understand how people’s differing perspectives can help us reach to different speakers. It’s very crazy at times, and I’ve discovered that it can be really complicated and overwhelming to have committee events and speakers mid-‐semester. Another possible concern is giving roles and responsibilities to our committee, which is currently quite small. Billy and I are currently working on strengthening the cohesion and responsibilities of our committee, and working on getting speakers and events that will reach out to the community. Other than that, I have really enjoyed serving as co-‐chair as it has challenged and given me outlets to explore my interests that are related to women’s issues. I am also very excited in having Women’s Affairs being very active on campus in the coming months.
Billy Kluttz
I am thrilled to be working with such a talented co-‐chair and I feel that our committee is achieving great things. Allie and I have very different strengths and I think that is coming together well to create a strong group and a productive semester. We are just now planning our <irst major events so I have few concerns as of yet. I hope that a small committee will be able to function well despite a larger workload for individual members, but that is a set back for our group. However, I feel that our passion and love for gender equality and women’s issues will help us overcome any dif<iculties presented by a smaller committee.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
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Cabinet Special Projects
Carolina Advocacy
Jordan [email protected]
Russell [email protected]
Overview of ResponsibilitiesThe Carolina Advocacy Committee is a student lobbying organization which regularly communicates and meets with members of the North Carolina General Assembly and others in order to advocate the interests of the Carolina community. This group will promote these interests through routine visits to our state's capitol, holding media events, and gathering student support for issues surrounding higher education funding, among other ideas.
Committee Progress
Gathering information about the tuition process and plans for this year
At the beginning of October, the co-‐chairs met with Hogan and other members of the Executive Board about the tuition plans for the upcoming year. We reviewed numbers with Hogan and are in the process of creating the proposal for this coming year. Once the proposal is ready and the budget has been put forth by the Governor in January, we will be able to move forward.
We are also working on a timeline of action for the spring semester. This will include who we will be meeting with, what forms of media we will be using, and at what time we will be sending out communications.
Improving our lobbying capabilities
The committee will be working with Erin, University Lobbyist, who is willing to meet and work with us on improving our lobbying capabilities. Erin is a valuable resource that Hogan recommended the committee utilize. The committee will meet with her in November and be trained in basic lobbying skills, such as effective communication and presentation. This will allow us to put forth our message in person to the General Assembly in the best possible manner.
We are also compiling a list of General Assembly members that will be advantageous to our cause in the spring; because of the election year, there will be new members coming into of<ice. The committee is closely following the upcoming election, watching who is coming into of<ice and who is leaving of<ice. Following November 2nd, we will have a list of representatives who will sit in the GA committees that will be most opportune for us to talk with; committees such as Education and Finance.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Bringing local members of the General Assembly to campus
The committee is also working on bringing GA members to campus. Our hope is that, like last year, by coming to Chapel Hill legislators will be able to gain a better understanding of the University, its needs, and its promise and will then be able to encourage the support of other GA members. In addition, these members will be able to provide valuable insight into the long session process and who within each committee we should be approaching to enact positive change.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Jordan Funke
As a committee, I think that we are on the right track. It’s important to remember that Carolina Advocacy is a year-‐long project committee. Carolina Advocacy has changed its mission this year from being a committee that changes its goal and mission yearly to focus primarily on tuition. While the committee has not yet completed many individual projects, our current involvement in the tuition process is ongoing and will yield dividends for students later in the year. Our committee is excited to be working on such a cause that is so closely tied to students. We’ve also begun to break down the committee into sub-‐committees to assign members tasks that better <it their skills; such as having committee members work on tracking the GA election and working on forms of media communication to use in the spring.
Russell McIntyre
We’re de<initely moving forward with our plans for the year. Since we do have a year-‐long mission, we have to realize that moving slowly isn’t necessarily the same as doing nothing. We need to spend the next few months gathering more and more information (even though we’re almost overwhelmed with data as it is) so that when the General Assembly sits down in January we’re good to go. Tuition is a very complicated and slow process, as we have to go through so many levels within the University and the state government to effectively lobby our goals. Our committee is moving along greatly, and after meeting with Hogan, I feel con<ident in the progress we have made, the direction we are going in, and our plans for the future.
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Committee on the University’s Role in State Education (COURSE)
Nina Brashears [email protected]
Grayson [email protected]
Committee Progress
Establishing a Mission and Purpose
Grayson and Nina worked during the summer to develop the vision for this special project in order to lay the groundwork to make NC-‐STAGE effective and focused with an ability to sustain over time and projects. Once the committee was formed, they collectively decided on a change in name to COURSE (Committee on the University’s Role in State Education) to replace NC-‐STAGE (North Carolina Students Tackling the Achievement Gap in Education).
A description of our mission and purpose: COURSE will identify and evaluate the role of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in educational problems in order to create and strengthen advocacy and conversation about North Carolina's education system and work to mediate the implementation of potential solutions. COURSE will develop this role within larger campus organizations that address educational issues. As a newly established committee COURSE will act as student’s voice through its position in student government, by bringing together a group of passionate students with diverse perspectives on educational issues in the state of North Carolina.
Minor in Education
As a committee COURSE has decided to pursue the development and proposal of a minor in education. We are hoping to this will serve as an alternative for studying the practice of education with greater <lexibility than that provided by the major in the School of Education. The minor has relevance to those interested in administrative or policy roles in education, those interested in educational technology, and those preparing for graduate work or lateral entry to the practice. The University has a responsibility to the state of North Carolina and this minor can be developed as a way to address educational problems, including potential teacher shortages.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Other Potential Projects
COURSE has discussed the possibility of pursuing other projects that include:-‐ Partnering with Roosevelt Institute’s Educational Center: Advocate the
implementation of policy members that have been published. Topics include Charter Schools in North Carolina and Alternative Paths to Licensure for Special Education Teachers.
-‐ Wake County Issues: Looking into changing issues and policies regarding the Diversity Policy in the nearby county to <ind opportunities for research, collaboration, and advocacy at the University.
-‐ Other Collaborations or Projects: COURSE will be open to potential partnerships or programs that are presented throughout the year. The committee members will make decisions on the effectiveness of pursuing a particular project.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Nina Brashears
As the <irst year for the special project NC-‐STAGE (North Carolina Students Tackling the Achievement Gap in Education) Grayson and I saw a great opportunity to address educational issues in North Carolina. Bearing in mind that there are a variety of other organization on campus that address education we wanted to ensure that the special project to address educational issues would be a sustainable endeavor. There are so much potential projects and collaborations for “educational” topics, but Grayson and I discussed the way to <ind a niche. Now that we have a very dedicated group of committee members and we have decided on a new name (COURSE) to better describe our mission there is much potential for this special project.
I am very excited about the minor in education because I see it as an un<illed need that the university has a responsibility to meet. The study of education should be open to all students so that a diverse population can explore such a crucial part of society, and that population should not just be limited to students majoring in the School of Education. With the University’s commitment to innovation and the state I look forward to see how a proposal for the minor will continue to develop!
Grayson Cooper
Having talked to several individuals, both inside and outside of the special project about the prospect of the minor, I am excited by its potential. Infusing committed students with divergent perspectives on education into the School of Education through the minor would ultimately broaden the backgrounds and trajectories of students in classes offered by the School of Education. Because of this, I recognize this initiative as being bene<icial both to the future Minors and the students in the School of Education.
While the current project of proposing a minor is substantial, the enthusiasm and campus involvement of the committee members allows for expanding COURSE in the future into an integrating entity for student organizations to advocate for positive developments in K-‐12 education.
100
Excelling Through Mentoring
Cory [email protected]
Peter [email protected]
Committee Progress
Develop and expand “Excelling Through Mentoring”
Excelling Through Mentoring is a <irst year mentoring program in its second year of existence. The program’s vision is to:
• assist <irst-‐year students in succeeding in academics and in campus involvement;• introduce <irst-‐year students to valuable opportunities to explore their interests;• create a support network for <irst-‐year students by establishing connections with
student mentors, faculty and other <irst-‐year students;• maximize the potential of <irst year students to express their leadership through
service to the UNC community.
Mentoring pods, consisting of 2 mentors and 8 <irst years, are the core of ETM and meet for <ive weeks during the fall semester. A wide variety of topics concerning all aspects of student life are covered ranging from academics and class registration to internships and budgeting. Several social events, including an ice cream social and participation in a service project, are being planned to give <irst year students a chance to further interact with each other. There are also three large group events that are educational in nature; examples include a Kickoff Event and presentations by University Career Services and the Study Abroad Of<ice.
ETM’s structure was modi<ied in several ways for this year. To assist the co-‐directors in running the program, a group of coordinators was selected for outreach, organizing social events, and planning large group events. The program itself was moved from the spring semester to the fall semester since that is when <irst years experience the transition the most. Due to its growing popularity, ETM was also expanded from 10 pods with 20 mentors and 60 <irst years to 16 pods with 32 mentors and 128 <irst year students, which is 3% of the entering class. In total, 167 Carolina students are involved in ETM.
In late August, applications for coordinators and mentors were released, and decisions were released in mid-‐September. The mentors represent numerous majors, hail from all over the country, and are campus leaders in many organizations. Next, applications for <irst years were released, and decisions were released in early October. The <irst year students were sorted into pods based on their preferences after reading mentor pro<iles, and the majority was able to receive their top choice. A Kickoff Event took place on October 17th, which had great attendance. Mentoring pod meetings started the week of October 25th.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
For the remainder of the semester, the committee will focus on updating the curriculum for the program. The coordinators are working hard on planning large group educational and social events for the <irst years. Time will also be dedicated to further publicizing this new program to Carolina students, gathering input and support from administrators, and seeking collaboration with other campus organizations.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Cory Gu
Last year, I served as a Mentor for Excelling Through Mentoring in its inaugural year. I applied for the Co-‐Director position because I really wanted to undertake a leadership role with the committee in order to help expand the program and move it to the fall semester this year. I think it’s a real testament to the program that 11 of the mentors were <irst-‐year students in the program last year.
This year we were able to improve ef<iciency and organization in the program by utilizing Google Docs for mentors/students to submit their applications. Our coordinators have been an amazing help in recruitment and organizing events for our program. The educational events allow for students to learn more about campus opportunities from speakers and social events give them an opportunity to meet other <irst-‐year students and network with mentors. We hope that the improvements from last year will enable us to have an even more successful year in helping <irst-‐years with their transition to Carolina!
Peter Sheng
I am excited to see Excelling Through Mentoring improve and grow from a pilot project into an established program with its own niche in the university. A 50% increase in the number of applications from last year show that more students are becoming aware of the program. Better attendance and participation at our events and pod meetings re<lect that more <irst years are taking advantage of this opportunity. I am very grateful for the support of my co-‐director, coordinators, peers in Student Government, and especially the mentors because ETM would not have seen such success in its second year without all their hard work.
102
First Generation Parents Weekend
Cherish [email protected]
Jennifer [email protected]
Overview of Responsibilities
The committee’s primary responsibility is to organize, promote, and support an annual parents weekend for graduating <irst generation students.
Committee Progress
Planning for the Project
The committee plans to host this weekend in the spring semester of 2011. Depending upon funding, this will event will be held on Saturday in March for parents of in-‐state graduating seniors. The committee is still working to recruit dedicated and passionate students to help with this project. Many students have signed and we are hoping they are willing to take on task to help us make this a successful weekend.
Collaboration and funding
The committee has contacted the following programs/of<ice to collaborate with the project:Carolina First, the of<ice of New Students and Carolina Parent Programs, and UNC’s Residence Hall Association. Carolina First, a student organization comprised of First Generation College students have agreed to take part in the project and their student have expressed interest in helping with planning. Unfortunately, we have not received a response from the Of<ice of New Students and Parent Programs, but we will continue to contact them in hope of their support. In the next few weeks we plan to schedule meeting with other potential collaborators such MSRC and the Of<ice of Admissions.
The perspective of the weekend
We have decided to keep the same structure we planned for last year. The project wasn’t able to be held last year, due to funding, but we do have a wonderful foundation from last year. Our goal is to help the parents receive their student’s perspective of life at Carolina, and also to welcome the parents into the Carolina Family.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Co-Chair Perspective
Cherish Williams
Progress has been slower than I imagined this year. I thought connections and of<ices that I met with last year would be more willing to work with the project, but it seems a little tougher. I am hoping that all the funding and sponsors will be <inalized by the end of the fall semester and the spring semester will consist of bringing the project together. I continue to have con<idence in this project and I will continue to meet with university of<icials until this project is completed.
Jennifer Henkel
As my <irst role in student government I am excited to be a part of this committee. I have contacted the Of<ice of New Students and Carolina Parent Programs and although I haven’t had much luck, I am con<ident that we can pull this project together. I would like to bring awareness to First Generation College students and help their parents become involved in the Carolina family.
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First Year Focus Council
Jeremy [email protected]
Olivia [email protected]
Committee Progress
Bring the Office of New Student and Carolina Parent Programs and the First Year Focus Council together to address critical areas of the first year experience; application process, adjusting to life in a dorm, healthy eating and study habits.
The academic committee of First-‐Year Focus Council will begin contacting the Of<ice of New Student and Carolina Parent Programs on Sunday October 17th. Once the council discusses an event and goals with the Of<ice, they will decide what they want the forum to consist of and possible dates for the event. After collaboration with the Of<ice, the forum should be completed this semester.
External Appointment committees, which function through the office of the Student Body Vice-President, often reserve spots for first year students in the fall. Among them, the Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor (SACC) seats two first year students to deliver the perspectives of new students to Chancellor Thorp. Our goal is to seat at least one of the SACC first year students on the First Year Focus Council to streamline the information flow between first year student issues and the agendas of the administration.
Earlier in the year, one of the SACC members expressed interest in serving on the council. Recently they informed us that they do not believe they have suf<icient time to devote to the committee. Another <irst-‐year on SACC has been contacted about serving on First-‐Year Focus Council.
Expand the visibility and accessibility of the First Year Focus Council
Our <irst committee project aims to increase the visibility of the First-‐Year Focus Council. We have started to design a t-‐shirt to give out to <irst-‐years in the pit. As we hand out t-‐shirts, we will collect <irst-‐year email addresses to start a listserv. The listserv will be used in order to inform <irst-‐years about events the First-‐Year Focus Council and other student government committees will be conducting. We are currently <inding sponsors to fund the t-‐shirt that has been designed and the council will be planning to sit in the pit soon.
Other events the council is currently planning are a <irst-‐year tailgate for the home NC State game on November 20th, a South campus themed mixer, and a community service project for the committee.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Co-Chair Perspective
Jeremy Knight
After collectively establishing a mission statement to guide us through the year, the committee has really hit the ground running by focusing on one large initiative to connect <irst-‐years to student government. As this project gets rolling, we have begun to shift our focus to a few more initiatives that will familiarize <irst-‐years with student government and enhance their <irst-‐year experience. In developing these plans, members have learned about many resources on campus, essential tools needed to actively participate in Carolina organizations, and how student government works here. Members have an active role in the committee, spearheading these events. This will allow them to be quite self-‐suf<icient next semester, enabling the committee to go in the direction that they want—not where we, the co-‐chairs, want. The group dynamic has been incredible—extremely productive. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I am completely con<ident that we will tackle most, if not all, that we have planned and that these members will gain a lot along the way.
Olivia Smith
Already I can see that the First-‐Year Focus Council members are becoming more captivated by the Carolina experience. Their ideas are ambitious and they are willing to spend time to attain them. Jeremy and I have been inviting in<luential members of student government to speak with the committee about their experiences and to give the members advice about getting started at Carolina. I feel that it is really important to educate the committee about student government at Carolina as well as help them achieve goals of reaching out into the <irst-‐year class. Right now, a lot of focus is on helping them learn how to effectively plan events.
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Music Festival
Sunny [email protected]
Vilas [email protected]
Committee Progress
Working Towards a Collaborative Carolina
The committee has met with or contacted a wide variety of campus organizations with the goal of possible partnerships, including:
• CUAB• Student Congress• RHA• CAA• Vinyl Records• Campus Y• Carolina Greek Associations• Senior Class
Highlight Carolina’s Spirit of Service
We are actively looking to sponsor a charity that bene<its Carolina and the surrounding Chapel Hill area. We thought that Build-‐a-‐Block was the ideal organization for our purposes, but that unfortunately fell through. Finding a charity to sponsor is at the top of our to-‐do list.
Attracting First-Class Musical Talent
In order to make SpringFest 2011 the success that we envision it to be, we’re trying to get an A-‐list artist to perform at the event. Before we can start contacting artists and their agents, however, we must <ind the aforementioned charity and construct a well-‐crafted platform which we can use to pitch our program to campus organizations, corporate sponsors, and Student Congress.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Co-Chair Perspective
Sunny Huang
The past month has been quite challenging. Due to budget cuts, all campus organizations have pulled their purse strings a little tighter. Compounding the issue is our lack of a true, de<ined platform. We have batted around many ideas concerning our vision for this event. The idea of adding a social impact component to the spring celebration is very appealing to us, but the ideal organization (UNC Build a Block) that we wanted to partner with is not on board. It has been frustrating on multiple levels. To really pitch to various organizations, we need to narrow down a list of potential artists that we would like to pursue to come perform. Unfortunately, that is not possible because agents are not willing to even speak to us without a legitimate budget. Without a headline artist to appeal to potential funding sources, they are less willing to contribute to the vision of Spring Fest. It is become a vicious self-‐perpetuating cycle that we hoping to break. We are attacking every angle possible to achieve a breakthrough, and I am con<ident that it will happen very soon.
Vilas Sankar
Like Sunny said, the budget cuts that have affected UNC have severely curtailed our efforts at getting other campus organizations to partner with us, and those that have agreed to help with SpringFest can’t help us with as much funding as we’d like. We’re actively trying to <ind a charity to partner with because we both feel that having a reputable charity on our team would provide us with the credibility we desperately need. Sponsoring a charity would also greatly help our ability to attract corporate sponsorships, which we feel will be our primary source of funding. We thought Build-‐a-‐Block perfectly <it the image of our ideal charity, but they unfortunately do not seem to be keen on the idea of partnering with SpringFest. Our primary task as of now is to <ind a charity to partner with, thereby allowing us to construct a well-‐crafted platform with which we can use to pitch SpringFest to campus organizations, corporate sponsors, the town of Chapel Hill, and Student Congress.
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Second Start
Jasmine Colquitt [email protected]
Uhlee [email protected]
Platform Progress
Help sophomores avoid the “sophomore slump” by providing information about the variety of resources Carolina has to offer.
As of right now, the Second Start Program is focusing on creating completely new events on campus designed speci<ically for sophomores, but still open to all. We have had two meetings this year due to our bi-‐weekly meeting schedule, but Second Start has already begun planning “Coffee Hour” – a regular event that would allow sophomores (and other students) to approach certain professors here on campus in a more friendly and relaxed environment (e.g. at Starbucks, Caribou, Krispy Kreme, etc.) instead of in their traditional of<ice hours. Second Start is designing this event to encourage and foster close-‐knit relationships between the professor and student. Hopefully we will hold our <irst successful Coffee Hour in mid-‐November and continue on with this series throughout the entire year. We’ve already contacted professors of various sophomore-‐level courses, and many have expressed their interest in participating in this program! Some of the professors we’ve contacted include Professor Byrns (ECON 101), Skender (BUSI 101), Williams (DRAM 116), Johnson (BIOL 252), Austell (CHEM 261), Bloom (BIOL 252), and Leb (PSYC 220/245)
In addition to the Coffee Hour events, Second Start plans to continue the Sophomore Life Forum that is moderated by the committee which was begun last year. The only difference between this year and last year will be that Second Start plans to hold a series of these informal discussions regularly throughout the spring semester. Within these Sophomore Life Forums, Second Start plans on covering an array of topics from “Time Management” to “Study Abroad Opportunities” to “Internships” in order to help them Sophomores plan a successful second semester/summer after. Sophomores are encouraged to bring any thoughts, suggestions or advice to the discussions to aid our committee in tailoring events to meet the needs of sophomores.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Co-Chair Perspective
Jasmine Colquitt
Overall I feel that Second Start is an amazing program and will have a posi=ve effect on the lives of many second year students here at Carolina. Like last year however, I have no=ced that it is s=ll going to be a challenging to create programs specifically targeted to sophomores without overlapping with already established programs and events, but I feel that by reflec=ng back on what was done last year in the program, Second Start will accomplish much this year. I feel that Second Start will also be successful due to our commiEee members. I am excited that our commiEee has grown in number and spirit this year. Moreover, like last year, we have a very strong and dedicated commiEee and I feel that with the persistence, hard work, and diligence of not only our new commiEee members but also of Uhlee and me, Second Start will con=nue to be a posi=ve influence on the sophomore community. .
Uhlee Oh
Wow, I did not expect our commiEee to have made the progress we’ve made thus far! I am excited to be working with an enthusias=c and crea=ve group of sophomores (along with Jasmine, of course!) who are ready to leave behind a very resourceful legacy on campus! As a sophomore myself, I’ve encountered various ques=ons and issues regarding my student life and academic career, such as “How can I find an internship?” and “What are some study abroad programs out there?” to “How do I approach professors without seeming awkward?” and “How can I manage my =me beEer so I can assure I have a produc=ve school year?” I’m grateful to be in a posi=on that allows me to help address these issues, and I’m excited to see the posi=ve outcome and effects of our “Coffee Hour” project and Sophomore Life Forums!
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Speaker Series
Matt [email protected]
Kelsey [email protected]
Background on Series
The Speakers Series is a student-‐led and student-‐run series that was created in 2007 by our late student body president, Eve Carson. Our series brings to UNC nationally and internationally renowned <igures—men and women who have distinguished themselves through their ideals and accomplishments—for the purpose of stimulating a campus-‐wide dialogue about important contemporary issues. The values set forth for speakers in our series are those to which we, as Carolina students, aspire: a strong ability to lead themselves and others, a commitment to public service, and the proven ability to enact real, positive change in a community. Eve believed strongly in Carolina students, saying, “it’s us – the student body – who make UNC what it is.” She believed in the importance of speakers to strengthen the values of the student body and better equip the students of our University to serve their communities and the world.
Committee Progress
Improving the sustainability and publicity of Speaker Series website:
This area has been a slow start, but we are now well on our way to having an improved website before the semester break. Brian Payst, of Student Affairs, is working on how to make our website easier to populate, and we have expanded the committee’s involvement in the day-‐to-‐day updating of the website. While sometimes a mundane task, this opportunity gives our committee members a chance to feel more involved throughout the semester and take ownership of the events. We have also kicked off our collaboration with other groups on campus, so that more speaking events are included.
In addition, we received an e-‐mail from the SGA Chief of Staff at Georgia Tech, Jimmy Williams, who was interested in our feedback on how to best foster collaboration with disparate groups on campus for speakers. We have been in contact and are helping them on this issue. Perhaps our website will lead to improved collaboration on other campus.
Continue to generate funds for the Speaker Endowment:
We met with Lanier Brown May on October 5, our contact in the Development Of<ice, about this project and have begun moving forward. She is excited for this spring and is optimistic that will hit our endowed goal, of 100,000 dollars, soon, particularly once the markets improve. She also said the Women’s Leadership Council will make funds available to <inance our speaking event this year independent of the endowment.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Other Projects:
We are close to of<icially naming the series The Carson Lectures: The Students’ Speaker Series. Lanier (Who is this?) plans to forward our letter to the University naming committee, so we hope to have the series named by the end of the semester.
We have been working hard on bringing speakers with name recognition to campus in conjunction with the Women’s Leadership Council and the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence. We have sent a letter of inquiry to Governor Beverly Perdue to come to campus as a speaker this fall. Additionally, we are working with the Chancellor, the Dean of the School of Public Health, Lanier Brown May and the Robertson Scholarship Program to bring Melinda Gates to campus in the spring. Hopefully these speakers will respond positively and we can continue to grow the presence of this series on campus.
The Co-Chair Perspective
Matt Miler
While I feel like we may have gotten off to a slow start this year, I am con<ident we will be able to have an enduring impact on the series. I am optimistic about the improved website, a project I began work on last year as a member of the committee. Furthermore, the letter from Georgia Tech was a nice con<idence boost that our committee is being looked to for advice because of our previous success.
I also believe that our new name may allow us to bring further big name speakers to campus and I am dedicated to see this happen next semester. Once we are an endowed lectureship, I think we will be better able to attract top speakers. I look forward to the rest of this year as we continue to reach our goals.
Kelsey Kirchmann
I think that we have been working hard to achieve the goals of the Speaker Series as well as ful<illing the new roles and obligations that has come with gaining the endowment. I think if we can <inalize the appearance of a widely recognized speaker, this will go far to continue the momentum of the series. I think naming the series, publicizing the series, publicizing the website and continuing to keep up with speakers on campus will bring success to this committee and improved recognition for Student Government. I am happy with our progress so far and look forward to successfully securing a speaker for our committee.
112
Peer Advising
Kelsey [email protected]
Jesse Addison [email protected]
Committee Progress
Select Peer Advisors for the 2010-2011 School Year
In the spring of 2010, we selected 12 Peer Advisors to serve in the 8 academic departments that are associated with the Peer Advising Program at Carolina. The Peer Advisors were selected based on achievements in their majors, relationships with faculty, and depth of understanding in their <ields of study. These 12 Peer Advisors were trained at the beginning of this semester.
Train Peer Advisors
Each Peer Advisor attended an hour long training and information session on peer advising. The training session went over the programs mission and the peer advisors responsibilities and restrictions. This year's Peer Advisors have developed methods for how to get the word out about this resource. Peer Advisors are supposed to contact their academic departments by November 1st and brainstorm more ways to spread the word (via listservs, presentations in front of introductory, lecture classes, <liers, blackboard, etc.).
Develop the Peer Advising Program
The Peer Advising program is a special project of the Medlin Administration and a newer addition to the Carolina community. The goal of this year’s Peer Advising Committee is to spread the word about peer advisors. The co-‐chairs of this committee aim to work with peer advisors, academic departments, and students to spread the word about the program. Students have demonstrated an interest in peer advising and this project aims to address that need.
Increase the number of Academic Departments in the Program
Our fourth platform point is to grow the size of the program. There are currently 8 departments involved (mathematics, biology, political science, geography, chemistry, Spanish, English, and public policy). By the end of the school year (Spring 2011), we hope to have increased the program size to 12 academic departments. Our focus in the spring will be growing the size of the Peer Advising program.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Co-Chair Perspective
Kelsey Farson
The Peer Advising program serves as an excellent opportunity for students at Carolina to receive information about classes, majors, and organizations without having to meet with an academic advisor. Peer Advisors can discuss with their peers about opportunities on campus, inside and outside of the classroom.
Jesse and I have selected 12 solid Peer Advisors for this year and are excited to see how they will be utilized in the upcoming months. My fear is that the word will not get out about the Peer Advisors and that they will not be utilized as a resource, but Jesse and my mission is to ensure that each Peer Advisor is recognized within their department and amongst students as a resource.
I hope to give this program a solid foundation for upcoming years. It would be great to see this program receive campus-‐wide recognition and be acknowledged as a resource on campus. Hopefully in the spring we can continue to work with departments to increase the size of the program. My hope is to see Peer Advisors have an actual presence on campus and be recognized and utilized as a resource.
Jesse Addison
Thus far, the Peer Advising Program for the 2010-‐2011 Academic Year is off to a good start. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know our new Peer Advisors, and I believe that it is crucial that we, as co-‐chairs, stay in touch with our Peer Advisors on a regular basis. This will be both to evaluate the current utilization of the Peer Advising program, as well as to forge meaningful bonds with our Peer Advisors such that they feel that they have a vested interest in the continued success of the program.
While we have yet to bring new departments and programs into the fold, we should be able to do this during the winter months (that is, once our current Peer Advisors are all suf<iciently oriented and providing us with useful feedback). Personally, I would also like to reach to out to the Academic Advising Program in the coming months to see whether or not they would be willing to make Peer Advising a more visible and sanctioned part of the overall advising experience here at Carolina.
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Public Relations & Marketing Team
Maria [email protected]
Committee Progress
Microsoft Live
The team has been working closely with representatives from ITS to establish a cohesive campaign strategy for this new system. Bi-‐weekly meetings offer us knowledge of the program’s development and help us shape our goals. We are currently discussing and determining things such as domain name, service name, program appearance and a communications timeline. We expect to <inalize a communications plan within the next few weeks and begin working toward a six month long publicity effort. Most of our strategies will be implemented at the beginning of the 2011-‐12 academic school year as students do not have to switch to the new system until next summer.
Our goal for this project is to make current and new students, alumni and faculty aware of the transition and prepare them for Microsoft Live. We will strive for an easy transition by offering support, informational sessions and extensive system testing. While our efforts are still at preliminary stages, we have high expectations for this project and will work systematically to release ef<icient and effective information that follows our communications timeline.
UNC Build A Block
UNC Build a Block is a 10-‐month initiative to build 10 Habitat for Humanity homes for 10 UNC employee families. Our team worked to get Build a Block media attention by writing and distributing press releases to campus, local and state-‐wide publications. Representatives from our team attend bi-‐weekly meetings with other Build a Block leaders to get updates on builds, volunteer efforts and share our public relations and advertising efforts.
Since this project takes place through the spring semester, we continue to develop communication and fundraising plans. We have been working to cultivate strong relationships and strategic partnerships with other Carolina organizations. Partnering with Relay for Life and Dance Marathon, our team is planning a charity bar night for early next semester.
Environment Affairs: Game Day Challenge
We worked with the Environmental Affairs committee on their upcoming project during Homecoming weekend for the Game-‐Day challenge. We attended their meeting and advised them on their public relations plan. They seem to be progressing in the right direction and we plan on helping them edit a press release and promote the event through Student Government’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The Chair Perspective
Maria Mayorga
The PR Team has grown and <lourished this semester into something none of us could have imagined. We have taken very strong roles in two of our projects, UNC Build A Block and Microsoft Live, and we have worked hard to disseminate accurate information to the student body. The team is still growing and creating guidelines, but we are setting the standard for years to come.
Our team has grown into 20 members that not only show up for weekly meetings, but also work for Student Government on a weekly basis. This semester, we have a higher level of responsibility and dedication. We are able to accomplish many things that a growing public relations agency could, including research, event planning, writing, editing, organizing and facilitating.
In just the <irst few months of the semester, we have been extremely productive and our efforts are currently rivaling last year’s tasks. Our projects are getting larger and our involvement is getting stronger. I believe we are doing meaningful work that is bene<icial to Student Government and the entire campus as a whole. I look forward to seeing the team progress even further and establishing publicity for many projects to come.
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Additional Programs
Eve Carson Scholarship
Katherine Novinski, Executive [email protected]
Calendar
Wednesday, October 13: Application OpensTuesday October 26th and Wednesday October 27th: Scholarship Information SessionsMonday, November 1: Chancellor Thorp is learning the Thriller Dance in the Pit to publicize for the Eve BallFriday, November 5th: Eve Ball (21+)Saturday, November 6th: Eve Carson Memorial 5K for EducationWednesday, November 10th: Scholarship Information SessionsFriday, November 12: Chi Psi Chi Omega Bene<it DinnerThursday, November 18: Recommendations DueFriday, November 19th: Eve’s Birthday BashSunday, November 21st: Application DueSaturday, December 17th: Finalists selectedFriday, January 14th: Finalist Application Materials DueSaturday, January 29th: Finalist Interviews and Selection
The Executive Director Perspective
Our goal this year as an Executive Committee is sustainability, from a <inancial perspective, an operations perspective, and a human resources perspective. For this reason, we have set a goal to raise $100,000 for the Eve Carson Scholarship as an Executive Committee, have increased regular involvement from 6 to 32 and are taking time to document processes and decisions.
As we are the last class to have personally known Eve, and to have been personally affected by the tragedy of her death, we understand the role our committee has to leave the Scholarship in a place so that it will continue to grow and develop in a way that is in accordance with Eve’s original vision, found in her SBP platform. We have been working to more clearly and consistently articulate the mission and vision of the Scholarship in all of our publicity efforts, when we invite people to get involved, to attend fundraising events and to apply for the Scholarship.
For this reason, we spent a long time last spring solidifying the mission, vision and philosophy of the Scholarship because the message was not consistent between many of the different sources. We used the language found on the Eve Carson Scholarship website and the documents from the past three years to settle on this mission statement:
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The mission of the Eve Carson Scholarship is to celebrate junior-‐year students who have demonstrated transformative development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In providing students the opportunity to celebrate students, we honor Eve Carson’s legacy and her commitment to excellence with a heart.
It is extremely important that the mission has two parts, because what is so special about the Eve Carson Scholarship is that we are honoring Eve Carson’s legacy by ful<illing her own original vision for a junior-‐year merit scholarship.
For this reason, fundraising efforts for the Eve Carson Scholarship will no longer center around an emotional appeal surrounding the tragedy of Eve Carson’s death but will instead center around the transformative power the Eve Carson Scholarship has had on the individuals who have been selected as scholars. We believe that in order for the Scholarship to be sustainable, it is important that we show donors and the university how the Eve Carson Scholars have been impacted by their summer experiences and the receipt of this Scholarship.
Chase Jones, Caroline Fish and Elinor Benami are incredible individuals who represent what it means to embrace the opportunities that Carolina has and then use these opportunities to develop as an individual in a way that allows one to more fully give back to the Carolina community. Eve hit on something so important in realizing that Carolina needed a junior-‐year merit Scholarship which is why we have to continue to raise money for the Eve Carson Scholarship so that we can celebrate more than just two students a year.
We believe that this transition from focusing on the tragedy of Eve’s death to the focus on the life and energy that the Eve Carson Scholarship has produced for the Carolina community in order to raise money is not only important for the sustainability of the Eve Carson Scholarship but also a pivotal point in the healing process for the community. We also solidi<ied a vision and a philosophy for the Eve Carson Scholarship.
Vision:
“Learn from every single being, experience and moment. What joy it is to search for lessons and goodness and enthusiasm in others.” –Eve CarsonWorking to ful<ill Eve Carson’s vision and legacy as Student Body President, the scholarship provides an opportunity for students to continue their pursuit of the Carolina Way. These students have demonstrated character and leadership in the face of adversity, and have shown a strong commitment to scholarship and social justice. We hope to enrich our community by facilitating the personal expansion and growth of these extraordinary students. The Scholarship aspires to be one of the most prestigious honors for Carolina students because it is the recognition of an individual’s dedication to the Carolina community by his or her fellow peers. In receiving the Eve Carson Scholarship, one honors the legacy of Eve Carson and her enormous contribution to the Carolina community.
Our Philosophy:
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“Inclusion, involvement, diversity, acceptance, seeking to be great but always remembering that we must be GOOD… this is just the START of the Carolina Way!” –Eve CarsonThe Eve Carson Scholarship embraces the Carolina Way in all of our actions. Though the Carolina way is ful<illed in different ways for different students, the essence is represented in the idea of excellence with a heart. Those that live the Carolina Way seek to continuously give back to our community through meaningful actions. Each individual in the student body must constantly live out their own unique de<inition of the Carolina Way.
Goals, Progress and Next Steps
Executive Director
Goal: Complete By-Laws to formalize the policies and procedures of the Eve Carson Scholarship and establish the Scholarship as a sustainable entity within the university.
Progress
Thomas Edwards and Katherine drafted an almost <inal version of the By-‐Laws in the Spring of 2010. The selection process and criteria for externally appointed seniors must be added as well as the roles and regulations of the three different funds.
Next Steps & Considerations
The Of<ice of Development, Division of Student Affairs, the Of<ice of Scholarships and Student Aid and the Executive Branch of Student Government must formally approve the By-‐Laws, since each plays a role in the operations of the Scholarship.
Goal
Establish an Internal Advisory Board for the Eve Carson Scholarship, according to the By-Laws, comprised of representatives from the Division of Student Affairs, Scholarships and Student Aid, the OfUice of Development and the former Executive Directors of the Eve Carson Scholarship to maintain continuity of vision from year to year.
Progress
The By-‐Laws include the proposed composition and responsibilities of an Internal Advisory Board, which would meet once a year to establish continuity of vision for the ECS, especially regarding fundraising and the selection process of the Eve Carson Scholars.
Next Steps
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The <irst Internal Advisory Board meeting will occur next semester after the Eve Carson Scholars have been selected and after the Executive Director for next year has been selected.
Goal
Involve underclassmen in the work of the Eve Carson Scholarship in order to make this idea sustainable for the future.
Progress
Last year, the Executive Committee of the ECS was comprised of 2 juniors and 4 seniors. As of last spring, the Executive Committee of the ECS had 7 seniors and 1 junior: Director of Recruitment & Selection, Director of Web Content, Director of PR, Co-‐Directors of Internal Fundraising & Co-‐Directors of External Fundraising and Executive Director.
This fall, in order to involve more underclassmen in the operations of the Eve Carson Scholarship, these positions have been added:
Executive Assistant to Recruitment & Selection – Sophomore Kacie Neville Executive Member at Large – Sophomore Abby Bouchon Finance Director – Senior Jen Smit Treasurer of Internal Fundraising -‐ Sophomore Ashleigh DormanExecutive Assistant to Marketing – Jiasi Wu Secretary – First Year Kathleen Hayes
Internal Fundraising now has a committee of 10 committed members, including sub-‐chairs, which are comprised of sophomores and juniors. Additionally, the PR & Web Content team has a committee of 10 members. This means we have increased the number of people involved in the operations of the Scholarship on a regular basis from 6 to 32, which is exciting and extremely important for sustainability because most of the members recruited are underclassmen.
Next Steps
The biggest goal with the new members is to effectively convey the mission and vision of the Eve Carson Scholarship to these individuals and delegate responsibilities so that they feel they are making a meaningful contribution to the work of the Eve Carson Scholarship.
Solidifying the criteria and responsibilities of the Executive Director of the Eve Carson Scholarship as well as the selection process for the Executive Director so that we can identify the right individual to take on this role for the next year is extremely important. At this point, we have a lot of seniors and a lot of sophomores and <irst-‐years involved with the Scholarship, however, the number of juniors involved is much lower as many of them are already involved in signi<icant other leadership positions. This means that recruiting the individual to serve as the Executive Director will require seeking out
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individuals who have demonstrated signi<icant leadership in other areas of campus but who have not necessarily been directly involved with the Scholarship in a large way. Juniors interested in being involved with the Scholarship next year, but who do not have time to commit to a large role should email me at [email protected] to <ind out smaller ways to get involved and learn about the operations of the Scholarship, such as by helping with recruitment and by attending weekly meetings just to learn about the Scholarship, before they apply for a position on the Executive Committee.
Goal: Raise $100,000 for the Eve Carson Scholarship to improve Uinancial sustainability and improve stewardship to donors.
The Eve Marie Carson Memorial 5K for Education will be giving 75% of the funds raised to the Eve Carson Scholarship this year, which is an increase from last year. Also, the Directors of the 5K have been collaborating with the Executive Committee and the Development Of<ice, which is necessary for the event to continue to be successful in the future. Progress on this goal will be detailed in the External Fundraising and Internal Fundraising sections.
Goal: Develop a 5-10 year Strategic Plan for the Eve Carson Scholarship with the Internal Advisory Board and the Executive Committee of the ECS. This will be completed in the spring in conjunction with the Executive Committee and the Internal Advisory Board.
Recruitment & Selection
Goal
Recruit an even wider range of applicants to apply for the ECS and solidify the selection process for the seniors who serve on the selection committee.
Progress
The three externally appointed seniors have been selected to serve on the Selection Committee. This year, selecting the seniors was not simple because it was necessary to determine the criteria for these seniors to establish a precedent for the type of individual which makes a good selection committee member, outside of their relationship with Eve Carson, since next year’s class of seniors only has a handful of students who had met Eve Carson. Now, we have a clearer vision of the selection process and criteria for seniors and will write a formal document to be passed down to the next Executive Director in order to enable them to conduct this process more ef<iciently next fall.
Jon Curtis is the new appointment from the Division of Student Affairs to serve on the Selection Committee for the next two years and Jordan Meyers is the Alumni appointment and will serve for the next two years.
Aaron Charlotte-‐Powers and John Brodeur are two members of the Selection Committee who are rotating off the Selection Committee this year, having completed their two-‐year term as the representative of the Division of Student Affairs.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
The application for the Eve Carson Scholarship opened last week on Wednesday, October 13thand will be open until Sunday, November 21st. Faculty Recommendations are due on Thursday, November 18th.
Two information sessions have been held to explain the mission, vision, selection criteria and eligibility to juniors interested in applying for the Scholarship and one more will be held on Wednesday, November 10th.
Next Steps
Christina Lynch will be holding of<ice hours in the pit to answer questions juniors may have about the selection process and will be visiting classes to publicize the Eve Carson Scholarship application.
Christina Lynch, Director of Recruitment & Selection, will be organizing the <irst meeting of the Selection Committee for during the month of November where the committee will be introduced to the selection criteria. Then, the selection process will begin. Finalists will be selected before Winter Break and interviews will be conducted the last weekend in January. Recruitment for applicants will occur during the month of November.
External Fundraising
Goals
Seniors So<ia Wilson and Chase Pickering are the Co-‐Directors of External Development and have established a goal to raise $50,000 for the Eve Carson Scholarship through the Eve Ball and pledges from External Donors.
Progress
So<ia Wilson has arranged to have all of the Senior Marshalls pledge to sell 5 tickets to the Eve Ball, because, this year, Lori Burgwyn who plans the Eve Ball has worked with Meg Petersen in the Of<ice of Development to enable Eve Ball tickets to count as a donation to the senior class. We hope to make attendance at the Eve Ball a Carolina tradition for the Senior class by involving the Senior Marshalls in the selling of the tickets. This way, students really are celebrating students, which is a signi<icant aspect of the mission of the Scholarship. We believe this is an extremely important partnership, because it means the Eve Carson Scholarship is working with the Senior Class in a way that helps us both achieve our goals, because the seniors are aiming to achieve 43% participation.
Chase Pickering has completed a letter to be mailed to a list of donors, which he compiled and which has been approved by the UNC Development Of<ice. These are individuals who have not yet donated to the ECS and this letter will be mailed out during November, following all of the fundraising events, to expand our donor outreach.
Next Steps & Considerations
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Chancellor Holden Thorp and Patti Thorp will be learning the Thriller dance in the Pit on Monday, November 1st in order to publicize the Eve Ball!
Following the four fundraising events in the month of November, the focus of the rest of the year will be on compiling a list of donors from within the Executive Committee and from friends outside of the Executive Committee of individuals who could be solicited for donations to the Scholarship.
The Development Of<ice has agreed to compile a list of all of the donors who have ever given to the Eve Carson Scholarship so that we can strategically plan the best way to approach donors, especially those who have supported regularly. Before approaching individuals for more donations, a video will be sent to all donors about Chase and Caroline, to thank the donors for their contributions to the Scholarship.
Stewardship towards donors is one of the priorities of the External Development team because it is important that we show donors how they are supporting and why it is important that they keep supporting. Next semester, we will pursue plans to begin a monthly newsletter that will provide donors, if they choose, regular updates about the Eve Carson Scholarship, both with regards to fundraising events and with regards to the Scholars.
Internal Fundraising
Goals: The Internal Fundraising Committee of the Eve Carson Scholarship established a goal last spring to begin a fundraising event that would be run by students involved directly with the Eve Carson Scholarship, in order to introduce a silly, fun side of Eve while also involving more students and members of the community in the mission of the ECS.
Progress: We are starting an event in November, Eve’s Birthday Bash:
Eve’s Birthday Bash: November 19th 4pm-7pm on Polk PlaceThe event will be held on the Friday afternoon of Eve’s birthday. It is our opportunity as a committee to raise scholarship awareness and funds while promoting the celebration of life that Eve Carson embodied. It will be a celebration of community, a celebration of friendship, a celebration of fun, a celebration of students embracing the Carolina Way.
As a scholarship committee we have a responsibility to not only promote the scholarship and ensure its nature as it was intended, but also to carry on the spirit of our friend Eve. She has become iconic in the minds of students, and in a way that is appropriate. However we want to maintain the human side of her. Her spontaneity along with her drive to develop friendship as would always say, “I have friends, and I have friends that I have not met.”
The event will have 7 activities in which teams of friends will compete. -‐ Mini-‐Scavenger Hunt
-‐ Pin the Tail on HoldenThe Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
-‐ Smashing Presents
-‐ Punt, Pass, Kick Contest
-‐ Cake Decorating
-‐ Cake Eating
-‐ DANCE OFF!
Individuals are encouraged to sign up in teams of friends or with their student group. Participants will pay $10 for entry, goody bag, and t-‐shirt. There will be an option to attend without participating. The events will be staggered in order to increase group participation. We want to encourage students to sign up as a team and make connections through light-‐hearted competition.
Next Steps:
Team Recruitment Week will be the week of November 8-‐12th, following the Eve Ball (November 5th) and the Eve Carson Memorial 5K for Education (November 6th). We hope to recruit teams of friends as well as student groups and will provide student groups an opportunity to share what they do and why they do what they do.
Public Relations & Web Content
Goal
Effectively publicize the four different events occurring in November for the Eve Carson Scholarship, in order to raise even more money than the previous year from each event, helping us to reach our internal goal of raising $100,000 for the Eve Carson Scholarship this year.
Progress
The Public Relations & Web Content arm of the Scholarship is extremely integral to the success of the Scholarship, because so much of our fundraising comes from events run by organizations outside of the Scholarship Executive Committee and outside of the university, that PR & Web is one of the biggest ways that we help raise money for the Scholarship, which is why the PR& Web Content Directors have compiled a team of graphic designers, press release writers, journalists, pr specialists, photographers and videographers in order to support the PR of the Scholarship.
The Of<ice of Development is funding the production of a 3 minute video about the Scholarship, which will include Winston Crisp, Chancellor Holden Thorp, and the Eve Carson Scholars Caroline Fish & Chase Jones, sharing stories, the history, mission and vision of the Eve Carson Scholarship. The video will be completed by November 1st, in time to be shown at all of the events during the month of November. Development has also said that this video can be sent out to the 180,000 donors to UNC, not just donors to the ECS. This is an important part of Stewardship.
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Next Steps
Four fundraising events are occurring in November while the ECS application is also open, which means the PR team will play a huge role during the month of November and will be putting their 15 day plan into place when we return from Fall Break. Members of the Eve Carson Scholarship will be in the pit publicizing the events the entire week from November 1st – November 5th to publicize the Eve Ball and the Eve 5K for Education.
Web Content
Goal
Establish a cohesive, useful web presence for the ECS, which includes scholar pages, which showcase examples of work, character and campus involvement as well as information on selection, mission and vision of the ECS.
Progress
New Media Campaigns, based in Carborro, offered to design and develop a website for the Eve Carson Scholarship. However, NMC uses a different CMS than the UNC web server and Bryan Payst along with the Of<ice of Development preferred that we purchase a Joomla Template and have our Director of Web Content, Lizzy Hazeltine, re-‐design the website herself. Bryan Payst has migrated the url from unc.edu/eve to evecarsonscholarship.unc.edu in order to enable Lizzy more freedom to design the new website. www.unc.edu/eve will permanently bounce to evecarsonscholarship.unc.edu so that we will not lose donors.
Lizzy Hazeltine and Jarrard Cole have also been working to improve the Social Media Presence of the Eve Carson Scholarship. You can visit the Eve Carson Scholarship on facebook at “Eve Carson Scholarship” and follow ECScholarship on twitter.
Next Steps
Lizzy will have the new website completed by the time that the next class of Eve Carson Scholars are selected in January.
Concluding Thoughts
Our goal this year as an Executive Committee is sustainability, from a <inancial perspective, an operations perspective, and a human resources perspective. As a committee we feel a responsibility to institutionalize the procedures of the scholarship and to involve as many underclassmen in the work of the scholarship as possible so that we can make sure that individuals continue to be devoted to the mission and vision of the scholarship.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
For this reason, my biggest emphasis for the <irst half of the semester has been on recruiting individuals to be a part of the ECS, especially underclassmen, in order to introduce them to the mission and vision of the ECS.
For most of the Executive Committee, the second half of this semester will be focused on fundraising through the four events in November. However, my focus will be on <inishing the By-‐Laws and on solidifying the Internal Advisory Board as well. My job as a member of the Selection Committee will begin as soon as Thanksgiving Break starts, so December and January will be focused on the Selection of the new scholars. Establishing an IAB will enable continuity from year to year from an operations perspective. This is why we are also working to formalize processes and procedures this year and improve documentation.
I plan to begin transitioning the Executive Committee and my role as soon as the Eve Carson Scholars have been selected, because I want to have a couple of months to transition, because at this point, we have a lot of institutional knowledge to pass along, especially since most in next year’s class will not have known Eve. I want to be able to transition the committee, and the Executive Director, speci<ically through the different aspects of running the ECS, since it is a unique student organization to be a part of in order to leave the next committee in the right place.
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SafeWalk
Christina Lynch, [email protected]
Program Progress
Increase Numbers
SafeWalk has started out very strong this year. We reached our record numbers from last semester early in the semester. We are averaging about 15 walks a night this semester whereas we averaged 12 walks a night last semester. SafeWalk’s most walks-‐in-‐a-‐night is now 43—it was 32 last semester. We reached these two records more quickly into the semester this year than last spring. Now, the Walkers take on more walks per night than normal. However, if you average only the two most popular nights, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, our average walks-‐in-‐a-‐night is much higher.
We have <igured out that each team can handle about 12 walks a night while still maintaining a short wait time and excellent customer service. We are fairly close to reaching our maximum number of walks per night that the three teams can handle while maintaining service. Thus, we are going to need to add a fourth team at least for Tuesday and Wednesday nights very soon, probably by mid-‐November.
Expand Off-Campus
At the end of the semester last year, we started to walk to Greek housing, but this year we have expanded also to any location on Franklin Street and Rosemary Street. Our speci<ic range for these two streets is between Granville Towers on the west side and Spencer dorm on the east side. We have found that these areas are in demand, but still most of our calls are for on-‐campus locations. Our next goal is to meet with Chapel Hill Police and discuss further expansion. We would like to come up with an off-‐campus expansion plan that would be safe for our Walkers and also to areas that would have the highest demand. This plan will be done by the end of November.
Because each walk will take longer to off-‐campus locations, our three teams will be more stressed for time. We want to keep our maximum <ive-‐minute-‐wait time as we expand off-‐campus, thus we need to add a fourth team before we do so. This would mean having two more Walkers on duty each night, increasing our costs. It is important to keep our customer service as high as it has been to keep up demand and to sustain our high approval rate. As stated in the previous section “Increase Numbers”, however, our most popular nights are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, thus we will only have a fourth team on these two nights until the demand gets higher on other nights as we expand off campus and publicize to increase numbers.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Funding
In order to expand off-‐campus we need to <ind more funding because we need to have an extra pair of Walkers on at night in order to keep up our customer satisfaction rate. At least for this year, however, we are only going to have an extra pair working on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We see no need to have an extra pair of Walkers on the other nights because those nights are not as busy as Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
We are the Parents Council’s student program pick of the year, meaning they are focusing their efforts on improving and working with SafeWalk throughout the year. Along with Student Safety and Security Committee, the Parents Council is our biggest funder and supporter. We are currently exploring more funding because we are $8,500 short for next semester without even adding a fourth team on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If we are to add a fourth team on Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting November 1, we need about $12,000 more.
Publicity
These increased numbers are due to the increased exposure SafeWalk has received. Over the summer, the Department of Public Safety spoke about SafeWalk during its safety seminar at each CTOP session. The <irst-‐years and transfers know about SafeWalk before the <irst day of classes. Also, returning students know about SafeWalk from last semester and are even more apt to use it this semester. Last spring we ran a survey and 95 percent of those surveyed had heard about SafeWalk. We plan to run another survey like this in November to gauge SafeWalk’s progress, satisfaction rates and other statistics.
This year, SafeWalk has a Marketing Director who is speci<ically in charge of publicizing SafeWalk. We hope that the Marketing Director will be effective in reaching out to our target market and thus, increasing numbers for each night of the week. More walks means that a greater number of students are being walked home safely each night.
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The Co-Chair Perspective
Christina Lynch, Director
I am completely impressed by how SafeWalk is doing this semester. Our team is more cohesive and dedicated as ever, and the employees are thrilled about the increased demand SafeWalk has witnessed.
This year, our Executive Board has taken on new members who <ill newly created positions. We now have an Assistant Director, Finance Director and Marketing Director. The new members bring more energy and new perspectives to SafeWalk that will only help SafeWalk as it grows. The Assistant Director, Matt Schaefer, will help me in coordinating the Advisory Board meetings, speaking to administrators and coming up with the off-‐campus expansion plan. The Finance Director, Makani Dollinger, is now in charge of writing all grant and funding requests, updating the budget and communicating with the Executive Board about the budget’s state. The Marketing Director, Jacob Horvat, will look into new ways that we can reach our target market. He plans to reach out to the Greek community, Granville and the Residence Hall Association. Now that the Executive Board is comprised of three extra people, I believe we can cover a lot more ground than we could last year with just Jonathan Tugman and me sitting on the Executive Board.
Hiring went very well this year. We took on 14 new employees and each is eager to work as SafeWalkers. We have also hired work-‐study students, which helps with cutting costs while maintaining our excellent service record. New this year, we are going to keep applications open year-‐round like many other businesses do. We will check and read through the applications once a month and if an applicant catches our attention, we will go through the standard hiring procedures that we always do.
I am excited to see how SafeWalk does this year. Expanding off-‐campus, adding a fourth team and <inding new funding options will be our biggest tasks this year. However, with our dedicated Executive Board and employees, I am sure that everything will go smoothly and that you will hear of our successes in the March Report!
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Town & External Relations
Jeff [email protected]
Sean [email protected]
Melvin McDermott [email protected]
Group Progress
Establishing a System of Regular Engagement with Municipal Government
On June 4th, we had a productive conference call with Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt. We shared ideas on how to create a better working relationship between the Town and Student Government. The Mayor was particularly excited about the new Liaison structure.
On August 18, Melvin McDermott III and Jeff DeLuca went to the Community Design Commission (CDC) to ask for feedback on a proposal that would allow students to serve as ad-‐hoc non-‐voting members, speaking speci<ically on developments likely to affect student housing. The Board was skeptical, despite support from Town Manager Roger Stancil. The CDC expressed concerns that students would not be able to commit seriously to the board and that the board’s four year terms would mean high student turnover.
We then met in person, along with President Medlin, with the Mayor on August 23rd to further our discussion about placing students on town boards and committees. The Mayor suggested that the Liaisons serve as the primary Student Government representatives to the Town on multiple platforms. In other words, instead of the cumbersome process of permanent placement that can last for multiple years, the Liaisons can represent student interests at the various board and committee meetings through public comments, questions, and petitions. Currently, Liaisons are using Town listservs from the Town Council and various boards and committees to scan upcoming agendas for issues of concern to students. When a matter is scheduled that pertains to student interests, one of the Liaisons is assigned to represent Student Government and, if necessary, speak on its behalf. We will continue to engage with the City Council, Mayor’s Of<ice, Town Boards, and Departments where appropriate to promote student interests.
As expected, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership did ask for an External Appointment. Jeff DeLuca was sworn in as the Undergraduate Representative on September 8th and attends board meetings the 2nd Wednesday of each month. He also maintains regular contact with Meg McGurk, Assistant Director of the Partnership.
In closing, Town and External Relations (TER) remains committed to making sure the student body has a voice in all major town affairs that affect them, particularly Carolina
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North, 140 West Franklin (University Square), and celebrations. Our job is to maintain awareness of town issues that affect students, cultivate relationships with town of<icials and staff, inform student government of important developments, and to advocate for student interests when necessary.
Homegrown Halloween
Our goal is to assist the Town in ensuring that Halloween is a safe, fun, and homegrown experience for UNC students. As a member of the Downtown Partnership, Jeff DeLuca has taken the lead role with regard to Halloween planning with the town.
Jeff spoke with Meg McGurk at the end of September to get some background on “Homegrown Halloween” and a feel for the town’s plans going forward. For the University’s perspective, he was referred to Assistant Dean of Students, Dean Blackburn, whom he met with on Wednesday, October 7. As it stands, the Town does not plan to make any adjustments to the structure of “Homegrown Halloween.” Some things however are still unclear, including operation of the Robertson Bus. Dean Blackburn informed Jeff that he would be addressing that in meetings with various administrators over the next week. The following are actionable items that Student Government can help to accomplish:
• Con<irm the Safe Ride J bus-‐ According to Dean Blackburn, Brian Litch<ield of Chapel Hill Transit has not heard from Student Government about con<irming the Safe Ride. This matter must be taken care of quickly if it has not been already. The number to reach him is 919-‐969-‐4908.
• Spotter Teams-‐ Administration needs help recruiting spotter teams that can assist students in distress on campus on Halloween night. There are 10 teams of 2-‐3 students and 1 staff member walking strategic areas to make sure students who are in distress, for whatever reason, get back to the where they need to be safely. Peak hours are 11:00 PM -‐ 2:00 AM and two ideas are on the table. One group works from 9:00 PM -‐ 12:00 AM and another works from 12:00 AM -‐ 3:00 AM. Or one group works the whole night. It’s a question of whether it will be easier to get 25-‐30 students to volunteer for 6 hours or 50-‐60 students to volunteer for 3 hours. It is the opinion of TER that the latter option will be more appealing, as long as we can reach the number of volunteers necessary. We think this is possible if we reach out to certain student groups and communities that may be less likely to participate in Halloween on Franklin Street (i.e. Substance-‐Free, Cornerstone, and other campus ministries).
• “Homegrown” marketing-‐ The impetus is on Student Government to communicate to nearby campus Student Governments that Halloween in Chapel Hill is lots of fun, but it is for our community only. The Town will soon begin its marketing push and the Executive Branch will be kept informed regarding that timeline.
As Dean Blackburn meets with other administrators regarding Halloween, he will keep TER informed and we will pass that information along to E-‐Branch in a timely manner. The same goes for any unforeseen changes on the Town side.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
E-Waste Recycling Initiative
Various meetings have been held over the last few months with Administrators and Town Of<icials on the matter of E-‐Waste collection. The need for an E-‐Waste Recycling program at UNC is clear. The nearest drop-‐off site for this hazardous material is nearly ten miles from campus. Sean Maxwell recently talked to Aubrey Southwell at the NC State Waste Reduction and Recycling Of<ice. Their program consists of rolling collections in dorms for smaller items (CDs, batteries, etc) coinciding with collection drives of larger items (computers, TVs) on a semester basis. But whereas NC State has an in-‐house recycling staff, UNC contracts out this service. Therefore, to avoid time consuming and potentially costly re-‐negotiations of contracts regarding additional collection of E-‐Waste, TER has determined that the best alternative remains reaching out to various Environmental groups on campus for volunteers to help collect and maintain E-‐Waste sites.
In a previous meeting with Sean Maxwell and Melivin McDermott III, Amy Preble of the UNC Of<ice of Waste Management & Reduction has made it clear that given the current economic climate and the cutting of red tape required, creating a large scale E-‐Waste program would be extremely dif<icult.
Given these facts, TER has signi<icantly scaled back short-‐term expectations for this program. Focus will now be on education programs in residence halls and small drives. Big drives around move-‐in and move-‐out times are dif<icult to organize due to lack of space, but we will continue to explore these avenues. Over the next two weeks, we are doing two things to forward this project: (1) reaching out to environmental groups on campus to gauge their interest in providing volunteer assistance with these programs and (2) drafting a proposal to RHA about an expansion of their current E-‐Waste program.
Our long term goals for this project are to have an agreeable framework in place by the end of the year for the implementation of an E-‐Waste collection system. This framework must address not only how the waste is to be collected, but location, security concerns about theft of items, and responsibility for maintenance and storage. We will be drafting a proposal in the coming weeks and reaching out the RHA and various environmental groups on campus, in addition to keeping the UNC Of<ice of Waste Management and Reduction in the loop.
In conclusion, much work remains to be done on all three fronts. The issues TER is tackling involve multiple parties and various interests. Establishing a framework for regular and effective student engagement with the town will take considerable work, but we believe that TER is well on our way to achieving this goal and has already made considerably more progress than in recent years. Instead of a larger committee, the Liaison structure, involving a handful of students highly knowledgeable about town affairs, has facilitated this progress.
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For More Information on the Executive Branch of Student GovernmentPlease see http://www.unc.edu/studgov
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
Appendix A: Official Releases and Letters
This is an appendix of public releases, letters, and media publications made on behalf of the Executive Branch of Student Government between April 7, 2010 and October 31, 2010.
Media Publications
Seize your chance to make UNC Better next yearDaily Tar Heel: February 19, 2010TO THE EDITOR: Now that the campaign season is over, let me <irst state my sincerest thanks and appreciation to the campus for a great election season. I am so honored and excited to serve as your next student body president.
I also want to thank my fellow candidates for this year’s competitive campaign season. Each candidate brought a unique perspective for moving the University forward, and I hope to work with all of them in bettering the efforts of student government throughout my term. Their involvement is critical to the success of any administration.
As we begin to move forward into a new student government administration, I will be emphasizing the importance of your input and feedback during this changeover. Please get in touch with me to share your thoughts and ideas over the coming months as we begin to reconstruct the executive branch.
That said, get excited about next year! There are so many opportunities for you to be involved with student government.
Applications for the executive board of<icers are ready and available on the student government Web site, studentorgs.unc.edu/studgov. These positions include the student body vice president, student body treasurer, student body secretary, chief of staff and senior adviser.
If you are interested in serving in another capacity, such as a member of cabinet or on an external appointment committee, those will be available later on in the semester — stay tuned for more information for those positions.
It’s time to take action, Carolina. Let’s get to it! Hogan MedlinStudent body president-‐elect
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Working Together for GoodChapel Hill News: April 21, 2010
Being a student is hard work. Between classes, the obligatory social life and the plethora of extracurricular activities, it’s tough.
However, being a citizen of a college town can be just as trying. There are the rocking dance parties next door until 4 a.m., the annoying students who believe crosswalks are optional and the endless flood of immature pranks, gags and jokes.
We are lucky, though, to live in a place where the town and the University have respect and understanding for each other’s needs and desires.
Since 1793, the University and the town have been inextricably linked in a partnership that has brought about positive change for the state, the nation and the world.
As we mark the beginning of a new Student Government administration, I’d like to speak on what we see as a few of the possibilities for collaboration in the future.
Two projects in particular, Carolina North and 123 West Franklin (currently known as University Square), offer great possibilities to bring our two communities closer together while improving both the town and the University. Each project has the chance to redefine its respective section of Chapel Hill and bring a new vitality to the area in which it is planned, but we’ll need to work together to make sure this happens.
Public involvement in the planning and design phases of each project is critical to making sure they reach their maximum potential. These large-scale projects in particular offer students and community members interesting chances to get involved, as both projects will be holding critical meetings and forums in the coming year in which you can participate.
Carolina North, a 250-acre mixed-use academic research campus located at the site of the current Horace Williams Airport, is vital to the future of the University. This facility will allow UNC to capitalize and expand its research facilities and connect with private ventures to more quickly reap economic rewards for its discoveries. These types of partnerships are critical to maintaining UNC’s position as a world-class research institution as UNC’s peers continue to innovate and improve their offerings for talent and funding.
This facility will also serve as a mechanism to continually attract the best and brightest to North Carolina and the Triangle. Maintaining and building on this advantage will ultimately reap large economic benefits and continue Carolina’s mission of giving back to the state.
Making sure that the plans for this project are in line with the needs of students, community members and the University is something both parties have thought about throughout the planning process.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010
I cannot stress enough how important it is to have the input of those who will be using, living and working at this facility. Town residents bring an important perspective. Critical aspects of the project, including transportation, environmental sustainability and housing options, are still being finalized and could benefit from an increase in public discourse.
123 Franklin, another project that will impact our lives in the coming years, is also ripe for your input. Since the University took ownership of the property last year, it has been working on ways to revitalize the property, and administrators leading the project have expressed their desire to include us in the discussion.
Promoted as a retail, housing and office hub for the community, the property is intended to revitalize a section of Franklin Street long devoid of heavy foot traffic, but will only do so if done correctly. Some options being considered for the project include a market, theatre and day care center, among many others.
Gordon Merklein, the project’s executive director, has said that incorporating the community’s input is critical to the long-term success of the property. The information they gain from you will help planners determine what types of facilities are built. What do you think Franklin is missing?
Students and community members alike need to step up and shape the discussion. Carolina North and 123 Franklin offer an opportunity, but will you take it? Only through our continued participation can we help ensure Chapel Hill remains a place where both students and residents feel at home.
Ian Lee is the Student Body Secretary of the Executive Branch of UNC’s Student Government. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Tips for Incoming StudentsThe Daily Tar Heel: May 12, 2010
TO THE EDITOR:
Hey Carolina students! As your Student Body President, I want to again congratulate you for choosing to attend this great University we all call home — soon you will too!
During the <irst week or so of classes, you will be given lots of information from student organizations, departmental resources, campus outlets and so much more. Here is some advice from students who have been through that incredibly exciting <irst month of Carolina that I think will help you make the most of it. During your <irst few weeks of school:
-‐Never shy away from meeting someone else at a Week of Welcome event.
-‐Think about what you loved doing in your high school and <ind outlets for that at Carolina.
-‐Think about what you weren’t able to do in high school and DO IT here at Carolina!
-‐Make use of Fall Fest — it’s totally okay to sign up for 40 group listservs!
-‐That said, remember to never spread yourself too thin in the long run. Pace yourself and enjoy it all the while.
-‐Your <irst year is about getting to know the campus — walk the quads and the Arboretum with new friends to embrace the beauty of this place.
-‐Ask questions and seek answers! Engage your professors early on, and go to of<ice hours!
-‐Take advantage of the multitudes of free-‐food events that you get invited to.
-‐Join the thousands of avid Tar Heel fans and cheer on our athletic teams.
-‐Talk to students who have traveled and studied abroad for credit.
These brief suggestions are among the hundreds from current students, so feel free to acquire your own tips through meeting others — we encourage that! We are all so excited for your arrival, and we’ll see you in August!
Hogan MedlinSeniorStudent Body President
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Defend Your Education and Take a Stand on CutsThe Daily Tar Heel: June 25,2010
Here at UNC we are lucky to go to one of the best universities in the nation, but a current budget proposal being debated in the General Assembly threatens the quality of this institution and its 16 peers in the UNC system.
Tough times are nothing new to us at UNC, we are a hearty bunch that know how to tighten our belts when needed, but the more than 180 million dollar cut being considered by the NC House could set us back nearly a decade.
Up until this point, cuts have had a minimal impact on the University’s core academic mission, thanks to dedicated administrators, but the current House budget would dig deep; eliminating numerous courses, class sections and even faculty positions. This means bigger classes, reduced services, and a much harder time <inding that one course you need to graduate.
President Bowles has called the proposal “draconian” and “unacceptable” and we owe it to ourselves to support him in the defense of our quality education. Chancellor Thorp, Provost Carney and President Bowles are doing their best, but we can do more!
Now is the time for students to take a personal stake in their education, by <ighting for its preservation. Call your legislator, write a letter, or go to Raleigh and make it known that you care! This is our education at risk and it is time that we take the lead in its defense.
Hark the Sound!
Ian W. LeeStudent Body Secretary
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Defend North Carolina Higher EducationRaleigh News & Observer: Approved for publication June 28, 2010
It’s summer time again, which means that schools are out, pools are open, and the grills are <ired up. These are some of the norms college students have come to expect during this refreshing break between semesters. Something we should not anticipate, however, is a threat to the quality of our college education, especially in a state that has dedicated itself wholeheartedly to building the best public University system in this nation. Unfortunately, this has become part of North Carolina “summer norms” for hundreds of thousands of students thanks to the state’s budget shortfall.
The impact that this year’s proposed budgets would have on the core academic mission of North Carolina’s higher education system is grave and possibly permanent. As we speak, legislators are busy settling the differences between the House and the Senate versions of the state budget (both of which included cuts to the University system, though the Senate was far more lenient.). In a time of economic depression, cuts are certainly expected but what exactly do these cuts mean for students of these schools? Will this dig into the quality of the education they were promised upon admittance? Is North Carolina short selling its future by cutting this critical investment?
From the student perspective at UNC Chapel Hill, the academic impact of previous budget cuts on critical resources and course offerings has been minimal. This is thanks in large part to more ef<icient management and sacri<ices by our college administrators, faculty, and staff to preserve the integrity of our institution; such loyalty however can only last so long as <inancial cuts become deeper and cumulative.
Should the House budget pass through the General Assembly, UNC Chapel Hill alone would be facing cuts up to 7.9%, this is on top of last year’s 11.4% cut. For students, this means many course selections being removed, numerous class sections being canceled, and vast reductions in courses with 30 students or less.
Carolina prides itself on is the ability to provide a small liberal arts-‐feel in the classroom while offering big university resources and diversity. Personally both of us have bene<itted tremendously from these formative learning experiences in which professors are able to interact one-‐on-‐one with students and engage them in detailed discussions. Despite the fact that these same techniques have been shown to encourage students to stay in college by fostering new ideas and building knowledge, such techniques are the most threatened by the proposed budget cuts.
Historically speaking, North Carolina has led the nation in providing affordable access to higher education. The tuition rates at all of our state institutions are competitively low and should continue to be so; but not at the expense of quality. That is not to say we should view tuition as a way to make up for funding – it’s wrong to suggest students should carry the burdens of budget constraints. Investing in the continued quality and accessibility of our education is a priority we elect our legislators to uphold.
Over the past decade, all 17 schools in the UNC system have taken strides to improve faculty and facility quality, but the cuts being discussed in the General Assembly would undermine these initiatives. Such cuts come just as the UNC system is facing tremendous growth in the coming years, raising the state’s demand for affordable higher education. It is undeniable that such a situation (more students, less money) is
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going to lead to a lower quality education for students; this is not the North Carolina way.
Quality higher education is an investment in the future of North Carolina’s economy and we fear that many in the General Assembly have forgotten this fact, focusing instead on short term <igures at the expense of long term value. While the state’s <inancial pressures are real and cuts must be made, good leadership requires the ability to see through the budget constraints and gain a new perspective.
As citizens of the state and students of the University it supports, we are impassioned to <ight for the maintenance of the high quality education system we have built. Education is what North Carolina does best, and we need to continue developing the leaders, technology, and businesses of tomorrow through our university system. If you wish to see these venerable institutions preserved, students served, and our future conserved, take a moment to call your legislators. Make it clear that you care about the continued integrity of our University system – our state’s citizens and economy depend on it. -‐Hogan Medlin, Student Body PresidentIan Lee, Student Body SecretaryBoth are students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying Political Science
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Letters
Hogan MedlinStudent Body President2501 Carolina Union, CB 4201Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Thomas Ross, PresidentUniversity of North CarolinaBox 7145Davidson, NC 28035
Dear Mr. Ross:
On behalf of the students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I would like to congratulate you on elec=on as President of the University of North Carolina system and welcome you back to the Carolina family.
You are well aware of the challenges facing this university and the difficult decisions that will come before you in the coming year, these will not be easy choices, but today I want to speak to the good.Despite the budget cuts and tough economic =mes the spirit of this university burns strong and con=nues to enlighten and inspire the next genera=on of North Carolina leaders. This spirit lives not in our newest world class research facility or latest athle=c expansion but rather in the hearts and minds of each and every one of us who has been lucky enough to pass through this university.
For over two hundred years this spirit has driven North Carolina forward; out of the darkness of history and into the light of the future. The University is an engine of economic growth in the state, providing more than 8.7 billion dollars of posi=ve economic impact annually, but one that requires the support and understanding of her ci=zens. As North Carolina changes, it’s important her ci=zens remain knowledgeable of these contribu=ons and the items that make it possible. Accessibility, quality, and academic freedom are cri=cal components and I urge you to use your tenure as president to defend and protect these cardinal virtues of knowledge.
While this system is far larger than Davidson, I believe having close student rela=onships to be equally important and would encourage you to stop by and visit campus when possible. We would love to have you. Congratula=ons again and I look forward to hearing more about your vision for the future of this historic ins=tu=on.
Sincerely,
Hogan MedlinStudent Body PresidentThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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June 22, 2010
Senator Kay Hagan,
Thank you so much for your kind congratulatory letter I received recently in the mail. Taking the time from your busy schedule to reach out to not just myself, but student leaders in general says a lot about the way you view student impact and involvement in the legislative process.
As the Student Body President of UNC-CH, I am highly concerned with the growing cumulative cuts in our state appropriations to the University system, threatening the academic integrity of all institutions while also endangering the affordability for all students as tuition increases. Though a matter for our state legislation, I hope you recognize the seriousness such action has on North Carolina’s economy, work force, ranking in higher education systems across the nation, and the quality of an education available to those who turn to our state.
We need you to fight for America’s higher education programming and funding; with your leadership and dedication, you can help North Carolina’s economy grow to replenish the financial setbacks for all universities, colleges, and community colleges. We need to never let the economy threaten the world-renowned public education system our state has created and maintained for hundreds of years. It has served as a beacon of light for our nation and our state, modeling to all how investment in higher education can bring about progressive change for the future.
I look forward to meeting you soon and working closely with student leaders of UNC-CH and the state to meet the needs of our student constituents. Please feel free to contact me at any point throughout the year(s).
Sincerely,
Hogan MedlinStudent Body President
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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July 20, 2010Chancellor Thorp, Provost Carney, and Executive Associate Provost Strauss,
It has come to our attention that this morning there was yet another campus discussion on tuition that did not involve student input. The numbers set for out of state student tuition for both undergraduate and graduate students are incredibly high and have not been reasoned or explained to any student who will be paying these dollars. As we understood it prior to this decision, tuition would be raised the same across the board. We are also aware that Erskine was not in favor of such a plan and the discussion was brought back to UNC-‐CH for additional options to be considered. This (just like the discussion last week) is where student input should have been sought out -‐ Student Government is the main voice for the student body and we are elected to serve in such a capacity. As the President and Vice-‐President, we speak for students when we say that tuition decisions should not be made without having student input; we are the ones who will pay the tuition.
Both Holly and I are completely aware of the needs and concerns of the University. I personally was in Raleigh speaking with legislators and other Universities back in June, so I know where the University stands, <inancially speaking. Regarding the increases of $200+$927+$750 for OOS Undergrads and $200+$532+$750 for OOS Grads, why is it now necessary to reapply the full tuition increases from this past year ($927 and $532) on top of the recently approved increases just last week? By doing so you increase the OOS undergrad revenues alone from $2,907,000 to $5,743,620 (this if from the $950 for every student option to the higher option for OOS students decided upon this morning). Does this not lessen the $4 million remaining budget cut we were so sure of having even after last week's increases? How do we know that this money will solely be used for academic purposes (libraries, grad student remissions, salaries, etc)? Further, if we had created a working budget before today regarding the increases, wouldn't it be the case that increasing out-‐of-‐state might allow us to revisit/revise the enormous increase for in-‐state? Even if not, these are questions we need answered so that when students inevitably interrogate us in the fall we will be able to respond.
Overall, we are highly concerned with the continuous decline of student input in decision making for tuition over the past few months; the UNC system has a strong history of incorporating and working closely with the elected student of<icials when determining tuition. We fear that the urgent nature of the tuition decisions in this economic climate has given you reason to overlook our input – for the sake of the true university-‐wide collaboration that Carolina takes pride in, this cannot be the approach to future tuition discussions. We are here to work with you as representatives of the students. Our voices must be part of the process.
We would both greatly appreciate a meeting with you three very soon to clarify our remaining questions and to be sure that we can all get back on the same page with the future of tuition decision-‐making philosophies for our University.
Sincerely,
Hogan Medlin Holly Boardman
Student Body President Student Body Vice-‐President
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Speeches
Convocation SpeechCarolina Union: April 7, 2010
Good evening my new Tar Heel family members!
It is truly an honor to stand before you to welcome you to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This Convocation ceremony takes place to celebrate the start of your journey at Carolina, a journey that promises to be exciting, challenging, and exhilarating – you are embarking on a life-changing adventure, and it’s starting today.
In preparing for this speech I thought back to the evening just three years ago when I was sitting right where you are now. I wondered what pieces of advice, as a brand new member of this community, would have been most useful as I set off on my own Carolina experience. Everyone’s path is different, but I have three suggestions that might help get you started in the right direction of achieving success as a Carolina student.
The first is this: take the time to learn who YOU are. Now, this might not seem an easy task – and it isn’t; understanding who you are requires you to step outside of your comfort zone, discover your limits and strengths, grow from your mistakes, and ultimately learn to trust your instincts. College is the perfect time to envelop yourself in this exploration – before you can become the person you are to be tomorrow, you must first know who you are today.
The second piece of advice is to fully immerse yourself as a member of the Carolina community, and I emphasize the word “community” here. Surround yourself with people who not only accept you for who you are but challenge you to become the person you are to be; embrace, and learn to benefit from the diversity of thought on this campus. Find a way to give back to the community through service; use the Academic Advising center, Career Services, and Writing Center as resources to help you achieve excellence; the smartest student is the student who knows when to ask for help.
The third piece of advice is something I once heard from a very good friend and mentor: “Never underestimate the power of possibility.” You’ve only just begun your journey at Carolina – who knows, by the time you are sitting in Kenan Stadium in your Carolina blue cap and gown you might have taught a course alongside a Professor, traveled to the farthest corner of the world to explore a new culture, worked in a lab to find a cure for a disease, or fully contemplated the political philosophies of Henry David Thoreau. Figuring out how you want to make the most of your four years at Carolina comes from daring to dream big and then fully exploring the outlets at Carolina that can help you turn those dreams into realities.
The part of your journey I haven’t touched on yet is about making the memories that will last a lifetime – I’ll never forget cheering on our basketball team with my friends when we won the national championship in 2009; I’ll never forget the spontaneous dance parties that seem to break
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out exactly when they’re needed; most of all I will never forget the many late night conversations with some of the most incredible individuals I will call friends forever – never let a moment like one of these slip by.
I am so excited at the prospect of what lies before each of you - however you choose to embark upon your next four years, know that you have the support of the entire Carolina community behind you. The network you’ve joined is one of innovators, change-makers, and Tar Heel lovers – welcome to the University and welcome to the Tar Heel family!
FACULTY COUNCIL SPEECHApril 2010
Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you so early in my term as Student Body President. Thank you also for historically valuing student representation and student self-‐governance at Carolina especially when it comes to issues that jointly affect faculty and students. Discussions about grading provide us with another opportunity to work together. Now, some of you might think that students want to avoid having anything affect their all important grades. Some of you also probably have pretty good personal stories about students complaining about the fairness of their grades that would con<irm that last statement. In fact, once or twice it might have happened that I let the thought of fairness cross my mind. Well, today is a new day, and we are embarking on a new endeavor to be leaders in a challenging area of higher education. Over the past decade, you have seen numerous grading reports and various plans to address the challenges of grade in<lation, grading inequality, and grade compression. The information compiled and analyzed by the Educational Policy Committee has helped all of us understand these complex issues more fully, and we should thank the EPC for their outstanding work. Even in my brief time in of<ice, I have begun to learn about the complexity and subtlety of this issue. What I have learned so far shows me that the proposal before you constitutes a necessary <irst step that will usher in substantive conversations about grading, and not just grade reporting, at Carolina.
The proposal to include contextual grade information on transcripts that you see in Section 1 of the resolution will serve as an important FIRST step. I support the EPC’s proposal to form an implementation committee that will determine the most bene<icial and relevant information for those transcripts. This group will have to weigh some competing issues. First, they will have to place information on the transcripts that will be the clearest and most useful for those outside the UNC community. In so doing, employers and educational institutions will have the tools to better understand the relative performance of our students. Second, they must understand that reporting any type of information involving grade distributions or overall class performance will invite SUBJECTIVE interpretation of the grades that all of you, as faculty members, give to your students. In other words, when a future employer, graduate program, or professional school compares two candidates, they will have to determine the relative value of a Carolina student’s
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individual grades and overall GPA. This interpretation could help or harm individual students, but as representative of the student body I do fear for those students who may be negatively affected in future application processes. As a community we must seek to accurately and fairly re<lect the performance of our students to the world beyond Chapel Hill. The implementation committee will need to help outsiders interpret the contextual information and the grades in a manner that gives them full, objective understanding. One of the dangers of putting contextual grading information on a transcript is its ability to harm an individual, outstanding student in a department or class with a very high grade distribution. That outstanding student’s high quality work would appear in a context that would not allow it to stand out. This problem compounds itself when that student takes multiple classes in the same department that has a high grade distribution. Without additional information, an outside observer may think that this student failed to challenge him or herself academically. As few other institutions report additional information on transcripts, we all have to recognize that with additional information comes additional risk for our students. We must encourage the implementation committee to acknowledge these concerns and seek ways to reduce or potentially correct for them.
Now, as important as the <irst section of the resolution may seem, the second section, the faculty-‐side of the resolution, provides us with an opportunity to evaluate our grading practices. The resolution calls for the distribution of grading information to professors and departments, but I believe we cannot passively allow the information to encourage the discussions. The implementation committee must create guidelines that departments will follow to ensure the effective use of this information. If we do not use this contextual information to actively discuss grading practices at Carolina, our work on grading policy will only extend to the transcripts seen almost exclusively by external parties.
Too often these conversations focus on who is right and who is wrong. Instead of pointing <ingers, I hope that students and faculty can work together to investigate how more valid, accurate, and fair grading practices can improve the University’s intellectual climate. After all, students and faculty together create the environment here that has led to many years of critical inquiry and academic discovery. Student Government looks forward to continuing this great tradition by collaborating with the Faculty Council and this resolution’s implementation committee. We have some dif<icult conversations ahead, but I believe that together we can make Carolina’s academic atmosphere even stronger.
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Carolina Parents AssociationOctober 9, 2010
(Thank you INTRODUCER) Good morning everyone, I am so excited to be here with you today celebrating Carolina’s Family Weekend and the extremely important partnership of this association with the University. As the Student Body President I wanted to come before you this morning to speak on some of the major campus initiatives and opportunities students are pursuing and strengthening as we continue to make this campus a better place to grow, learn and discover – it is such a great time to be a Tar Heel.
Ever since many of you were last here for your son or daughter’s orientation, our campus has blossomed with an unprecedented display of vitality, diversity and innovation. Carolina students are at the forefront of our nation’s most academically engaged and service-‐oriented scholars and leaders; the culture of the Carolina Way permeates our 700+ student organizations, our thought provoking classroom experiences, our living and learning communities, and our top of the line research programs. It never ceases to amaze me just how involved our student body can be. Whether it’s dancing for 24 hours to raise money for the UNC Children’s Hospital, studying the impact of a micro-‐<inance initiative in sub-‐Saharan Africa, serving as a peer mentor for an underclassmen, or even hosting an event to bring awareness to local community issues, it’s the students, like your own, who give Carolina a lot of the prestige in student life we are so well known for.
Speci<ically in Student Government we are always seeking ways to plug students in to the greater campus community. We are a great vehicle for <irst year students, especially, as we can help navigate them through the hundreds of potential activities and opportunities they explore in those <irst few weeks. We have over 60 <irst year students working on projects and committees within Student Government, and we are very excited to harness their eagerness and new perspectives. For example, we have many <irst year students working on our Academic Affairs committee where they get the chance to critically analyze Carolina’s curriculum, advising and career services, and provide feedback for the new course registration process. Others are working on developing an Admissions Ambassador Abroad program to give students the chance to make presentations in cities across the world where they are studying in hope of increasing UNC’s global presence without costing the University a lot of money. Student Government is where students turn to have their voices heard on all things related to the University – our job is to empower others and strive to leave this place better for future generations of Carolina students.
As the Parent’s Association, I encourage all of you to be actively involved in what students are doing here on campus, especially if you have a student currently enrolled. It can only enhance your experience as a Carolina parent to be informed, but from the student perspective, having an engaged Parent’s Association can, in a lot of ways, open up new doors for us that otherwise may not be possible. It is my personal belief that one of the greatest resources we have on campus as <irst-‐year students is the Of<ice of New Student and Parent Programs under the Division of Student Affairs. They are the folks who oversee our orientation, your association, the summer reading program and so much more. Without
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your continued support, we would not have such high quality services coming from that area of Student Affairs.
One thing I mentioned earlier that I have yet to expound upon is Carolina’s dedication to increasing the presence and in<luence of a diverse faculty and student body. Diversity at Carolina goes further than just race or ethnicity; we are dedicated to embracing diversity of thought both in the classroom and in the community. Creating and maintaining an inclusive, safe environment is one of our top priorities as we continue to grow and become a more global university.
Again, let me thank you for the opportunity to speak before you this morning – I hope that this gave you a brief glimpse into the exciting and inspiring community your students have joined. Please stay connected, feel free to reach out to us in Student Government, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the day as we plan to beat CLEMSON this afternoon! GO HEELS!
Student Affairs Kickoff Meeting
Good afternoon everyone, thanks so much for having me speak to you as you come together to prepare for yet another year of furthering the education and excellence of students through the Division of Student Affairs – I know all of us over in Student Government are ready to kick things off next week with our work, maybe not so much with starting classes, but none-‐the-‐less we’re ready to have students back on campus, repopulating this place with vitality, excitement and enthusiasm for what promises to be an eventful academic year.
A few weeks ago Vice-‐Chancellor Crisp asked me to speak before you today about the impact the Division of Student Affairs has had on my Carolina experience, as well as the general student body. My <irst thought was where do I even begin?! The various entities of this organization have become some of the major foundations of my Carolina experience, so to stand here and tell you all the various ways you and your teams have impacted my three years thus far would take hours – I’ll try to keep this brief, but know that the work you all do day in and day out permeates, and really comprises, everything I consider to be unique to our University.
Whenever I have the opportunity to brag about our school to a friend of mine at another University, I take it. But, I don’t just brag about our awesome athletic program or our stellar academic achievements through research and esteemed faculty members – instead, I consistently consider our strongest characteristic to be the quality of the individual Carolina student. Some common words used when describing the qualities of these individuals are things like passionate, integrity, excellence, sel<lessness, innovative, and honorable. But, how do these all become synonymous with “a Carolina student?” What is it about this place that not only encourages the development of such leaders and change-‐makers, but does so on such a large scale? Some may think that it’s our admissions of<ice waving a magic wand to produce loads of these students, but Steve Farmer has con<irmed with me that no such instrument exists – however, when you take a good look at our campus, you quickly realize that there is a culture of “pursuing excellence with heart” (pause) driven by the partnership of students, faculty, and staff alike. We are all here to do something great, something we cannot achieve alone outside of a place like a university, for the resources and outlets available to us here give us that extra boost to
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surpass barriers of thought and imaginative stagnation. And just like any well oiled machine, Carolina’s culture functions only as well as the individual parts can contribute – you and your departments and teams are the working entities on this campus that drive the culture forward – the culture of pursuing excellence with heart. This might be better described with a personal story of how the Division of Student Affairs provided me with an outlet to learn and grow outside of the classroom…
Three years ago I came to Carolina as an eager recent-‐highschool-‐graduate set on spreading myself across 20 different groups or organizations to make sure I didn’t miss out on a single opportunity that was of any interest to me. Campus Y, Best Buddies, UNC Clef Hangers, Student Government, SLAC Committee – you name it, I was doing it. I had leaders to look up to in all of my activities like Anoop Desai, Anna Lassiter, and Eve Carson, (names I am sure many of you remember) all of whom were visionaries and change-‐makers in the things that they did. It wasn’t until I started realizing that my excessive involvement was simply that, (pause) involvement, not active membership, with these groups that I decided I needed to do some reevaluation of how I could make a difference here at Carolina. Lucky for me, I happened to be guided towards Carolina Leadership Development after a long conversation with Eve about my dilemma of over-‐involvement – that spring I took the Dynamics of Effective Leadership course offered through CLD, which covers topics like personal styles of leadership, leadership on college campuses, and transformative leadership amongst individuals. This resource, this simple yet powerful one hour credit course that the Division of Student Affairs was offering me completely redirected my thinking and actions about being a leader at Carolina. It made me realize the reason why those people I looked up to were successful – they had tapped into the resources you all provide students to discover where their niche is at this University, allowing them to hone in and excel in their respective organizations. Since this realization, I was given the opportunity to teach this course a year later as a sophomore to a group of 16 students (<irst years thru seniors) and was hopefully able to pass on some of the resources that gave me direction and clarity for my path as a Carolina student.
I tell you this story to hopefully illustrate how the work you do impacts a student at Carolina – this is just one perspective. I could stand here and tell you about how incredible our Honor system is in comparison to peer institutions, or how imperative Counseling and Wellness and Disability Services are to the mission of being a truly diverse campus, inclusive of students from all walks of life but I think these are things you already know. In fact, I think these are the reasons why you wake up each day and come to work at this University. You, the members of the Division of Student Affairs, are the glue that keeps that culture of “excellence with a heart” alive and vibrant every single year – there is nothing trivial or minimal about what you do.
As we stand at the brink of another year, I want to challenge you to think of what’s ahead not in terms of days or weeks but rather in terms of opportunities; in fact, in just a few days I will be addressing the new students at Convocation, and the <inal piece of advice I will be passing along to them is something that I think this group of individuals can really embrace as well. It’s ironic though – I got this advice from someone you all know very well and respect. Melissa Exum once said “Never underestimate the power of possibility” and ever since then I’ve taken that to heart – think about it. The unknown, the future, the opportunities that lie in this year ahead of us are not de<ined, meaning we can do what we want with them – the work you do can alter someone’s overall Carolina experience – that’s
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power. That’s promise and it comes from your dedication to serve the students of this University. As the Student Body President, I could not feel more con<ident and empowered knowing that I’ve joined a team of dynamic leaders in the Division of Student Affairs who always put students <irst – we share a mission of bettering this University and I know that we can achieve much from daring to dream big.
I’m going to stop babbling now because if I don’t you might just have to sit through me explaining my major philosophies of this University and the incredible people who make up the population – I hope that the remainder of your kick-‐off sessions for the year go well, and please never hesitate to contact us in Student Government for partnerships in projects or policies with your department – in fact, I hope that I get the chance to meet each of you individually if we have not done so already. The start of the year is less than a week away – I can’t wait to see all the things you will do for Carolina that help mold us students into the unique leaders of tomorrow’s world.
Thank you again, so much!
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Appendix B: Maps, Figures, Etc
Student Life: Fall Fest Map
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Student Life: Organization Table 1
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Student Life: Organiza=on Table 2
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Student Life: Organiza=on Table 3
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Student Life: Organiza=on Table 4
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Tuition Visibility Report 2010
Executive SummaryWritten by Geordan Stroud and Cydney Swofford, Executive Assistants to the Senior Adviser and
edited by Paul Shorkey, Senior Adviser.
This Tuition Visibility Report was created in order to better inform students about how their tuition is allocated and the reasoning behind its use. The most import thing for students to understand regarding the tuition policy is that tuition money is only used to cover expenses related to the academic experience of the student body. This report provides a general overview of the allocation of funds by dividing them into five core areas: Academic Advising, Need-Based Aid/Scholarships, Graduate Student Remission, Faculty Salaries, and Library Services.
Academic Advising Program
The Academic Advising Program (AAP) holds one of the most important and visible positions on the Chapel Hill campus. Students in all fields of study go to the recently renovated Steele Building for advice on a plethora of topics, and the professionals in this office completely dedicate themselves to helping students have the most beneficial academic experience at Carolina. While it is unclear how much tuition money goes directly towards AAP, some specific expenditure numbers are below:
• Fiscal Year 20010 expenses listed under “State” funds (this includes state appropriations and tuition)-$1,974,432
• Exempt from the State Personnel Act Wages (going to most of the non-faculty advisers)-$1,134,000
• Subject to the State Personnel Act Wages (those employed in AAP who are either lower level advisers or support staff)-$409,568
• Total Expenditure for Fiscal Year 2010-$2,273,383
Need-Based Aid/Scholarships
As UNC continues to expand its number of admitted students substantially over the next decade, it is critical to constantly reevaluate the level of financial aid offered to students and the allocation of tuition funds in order to properly meet the financial needs of every student at the university. Currently 15,871 students receive financial aid from the university, totaling $233.3 million of aid. Every year, the UNC Board of Trustees allocates at least 35% of all new tuition receipts in order to provide financial aid grants to students in attendance. As enrollment increases at UNC, need-based aid funding must continue to increase in way that is proportional to the financial needs of the university’s students. Tuition and private donations make up one third of the funding for financial aid.
Graduate Student Remission156
Graduate student remission goes to those graduate students who are serving as teaching or research assistants as a supplement to the stipends they receive for teaching and research. While the funding stream varies to include tuition, instructional dollars and other resources, around $200,000 dollars of tuition increases from the 2008-2009 year went to graduate student remission. Tuition remission is a vital component of attracting top graduate students to our university.
Faculty Salaries
UNC is required to put a minimum of 25% of all tuition increases towards faculty salaries. This has been one of the largest components of the tuition increases, comprising nearly 50%. The breakdown can be seen below:
Faculty Based Tuition Increases
2008-2009 Total Since 2000Faculty Salaries $3,656,888 $30,171,859Fringe Benefits $729,277 $4,730,027TA Salaries $0 $3,132,700Student Awards $2,832,935 $24,046,420Campus Funded Tuition Remission/Award and Academic Support
$875,000 $2,030,955
Total $8,094,100 $64,111,961
Librarian Services
Like faculty salaries, librarian salaries must remain competitive with peer institutions to attract and retain those at the top of their field. Tuition funds flow to UNC’s libraries for this purpose. In 2008-2009, $75,000 was allotted for the increasing of librarian salaries.
Conclusion
Once each of these five main units receives funding they re-allocate the money in order to best meet their individual goals. Because each unit uses individual systems to track spending, specific tracking of allocated expenses is difficult. In order to makes this process easier, the university has implemented a new system. The NC General assembly allocated $59 million for the “acquisition and implementation of certain components of its enterprise administrative systems, including, but not limited to, Student, Human Resources, Payroll, and Finance”. So far $53.6 million of this has been spent on implementing the ERP project at UNC. In addition a student technology fee was added to fund the ERP project, and has generated $5.2 million thus far. In addition previous Vice Chancellor for Information and Technology, Dick Mann, secured $88 million to cover the start up costs of implementing the new system. This system, called ConnectCarolina, will be financed and phased in over the next five years.
The Executive Branch of Student Government October Report 2010