Saint Mary's Board of Governance (BOG) members awarded a total of $1,950 to three co-sponsorships at the annual transition meeting for the board Monday night.
The old board that worked under current student body president and vice president Susan McIlduff and Maggie Siefert, respectively, met with their successors who took over under new student body president Kim Hodges and vice president Kelly Payne.
The transition meeting took place with all members of the old BOG board present so the new board could get a better understanding of how the meetings operate.
The first co-sponsorship presented to the boards was for a Saint Mary's Affiliates of the American Chemical Society (SMAACS). The group attended a conference in Chicago and asked for money to help defer the cost of the trip.
Three students presented research conducted at Saint Mary's in the chemistry and physics departments, senior Katie White said.
"We presented a poster on what [events] SMAACS has held this year and we received an outstanding chapter award," White said. "We were the only women's college to receive any award."
BOG awarded $1,500 to help finance the trip, which took place last weekend.
The second co-sponsorship was awarded to three students who attended the 2007 Idealist Campus conference sponsored by idealist.org.
Sophomore Becky Faunce presented the co-sponsorship and said idealist.org helps students network to see what others are doing with advocacy and social change on their college campuses.
"We spent three days discussing what we're doing on our own campus, participating in workshops and getting our name out there as to what we're doing at Saint Mary's," Faunce said.
Faunce, senior Kirsten Kensinger and sophomore Alison Fleece want to implement what they learned in the three-day conference, which took place March 23-25. BOG awarded the students $150 with the stipulation that they create a concrete plan of how they are going to publicize the conference next year and what they will do to implement the ideas that they learned at this year's conference.
The final co-sponsorship was to provide funding for a group of women's studies students to travel to the national Women's Studies Association Annual Conf-erence in St. Charles, Ill., in June.
The group of seven students will listen to speakers as they address the topic of this year's conference, "Past Debates, Present Possibil-ities, and Future Feminisms."
"It's looking at how far the discipline of women's studies has come since the first conference was held," said Faunce, who also presented this co-sponsorship.
BOG voted to award the group $300 with the stipulation that those attending will host a luncheon to present what they gained from the conference.
In other BOG news:
u The Saint Mary's TOSTAL - the College's largest social event of the year - will take place April 26. The event will feature massages and caricatures in the student center, a showing of the movie "Dreamgirls" on the library green, canoe races on Lake Marion and a fireworks display.
u The second annual Saint Mary's Dance Marathon will take place on April 20 from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Dancer packets should be turned in to any hall director by Wednesday.
