News > March 27, 2008

By Liza Greenspun | Senior writer

Elections for next year’s Student Government officers will be held all day April 1. With the approaching elections, senior Whitney Marshall, SG president, describes what SG has accomplished thus far during her term in office and which initiatives are still under process with the ensuing weeks of officer transitions.

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The 2006-2007 SG executive committee (top left to bottom right): Alex Vaccaro, President Hatch, Ross Williford, Parul Patel, Whitney Marshall and Sarah Walker (Photo courtesy of Student Government)

“I want students to know what Student Government has accomplished this year,” Marshall said. “All too often students say Student Government doesn’t do anything, but we do a lot for students.”

Marshall emphasized the fact that SG takes seriously comments, complaints and suggestions they receive from the student body.

It is SG’s duty, she said, to relay those comments to the administration.

“Everything is a process and it takes time to get things approved,” Marshall said. While Marshall said she is proud of everything SG has accomplished this year, she also noted that the biggest challenge SG has experienced is publicity.

Though each member of the student body should be receiving constituent e-mails, and there is information available on the SG Web site, she said the general student body still does not feel that they know what SG is working on. Therefore, one of the things the Public Relations Committee worked on this semester was to get a new television in the Pit that will be used to display announcements and flyers from different campus groups and organizations.

The TV was set up in the Pit about two weeks ago, but SG is still working with Information Systems to begin making announcements on the TV. Marshall said that SG now has its own channel as a result of the new TV.

Additional changes have also been made in the Pit, including a microwave available for student use, ginger ale, chocolate chip cookies and suggestion boxes. In recent weeks, Marshall said, vegetarian options have also improved, at the request of SG.

SG has also pushed ARAMARK to increase publicity of descriptions of food that will be available on any given day. As for the Benson renovations, the SG Dining Committee gave direct feedback about the types of food options they would like to see in the new food court.

Another highly frequented campus spot is the Miller Center. To deal with the overcrowding of the Miller Center, a committee was formed, which has looked into creating additional space for machines in Reynolds Gym, and creating a “gym cam” so that students can look online to see how crowded the Miller Center is at that time.

SG has been involved with the entire Campus Master Planning process. Thus the Physical Planning Committee has worked with Jim Alty, assistant vice president of facilities management, on drainage and sewage initiatives to discuss the smell of sewage, particularly between Reynolda and Kitchin House, and drainage issues across campus.

The Physical Planning Committee has also done danger walks, in which SG members walked around campus with police officers.

They looked at areas that make students feel unsafe due to a lack of lighting and the distance between blue lights, which should be visible from any point on campus.

The recycling program has been improved, as the increased number of recycling units makes recycling on campus more convenient, and a new Executive Committee on Sustainability and Energy, headed by junior Ross Williford, was started.

SG has also worked to implement academic changes, including class registration during the evening next year and working to increase the number of students who can register during each time slot. The Academic Committee has also worked to ensure that “dead week” rules are followed by professors during the last week of classes. During this week, no professor is to assign anything worth more than 15 percent of the overall class grade. Anyone who has a professor that violates this rule can send an anonymous e-mail to wfusg1@gmail.com. The committee will then send that professor something about the rules of that week. The Academic Committee is still exploring a textbook rental system for math and science classes, and making course descriptions for various classes more detailed.

Salaries for SG executive members are being looked into by the Judiciary Committee, which has also increased checks on the Student Budget Advisory Committee this year, ensuring that any changes in the process must first be approved by the SG legislature.

The Appropriations and Charter Committee has also implemented new guidelines in order to reduce a redundancy of types of groups on campus, particularly now that the moratorium on student groups has been lifted.

The new guidelines are available on the SG Web site, www.wakesg.com. SG was also responsible for Culture Week, Class of the Finest, SG Carnival (which will be held April 3), Deac Days, Deacon Express and football and basketball student ticket distribution. Marshall said that SG is trying to institutionalize the Deacon Express shuttle system to and from football games in order to avoid having to reapply for Student Activities Funds each year. Also, in light of recent announcements concerning the Strategic Plan, bills were passed through the SG legislature March 25 against further enrollment growth until the university has a tangible plan that shows it can accommodate more students and that SG does not appreciate the increase in parking fees to $500 that will be implemented for the 2008-2009 academic year.

“Overall, this has been a very good year for Student Government,” Marshall said, because they have tackled a lot of issues that have been of concern to the student body for some time.