Saint Mary's Student Government Association (SGA) is off to a successful year with its first sponsored event, a trip to Wabash College, running smoothly this past weekend, student body president Jenny Hoffman said.
A total of 37 Saint Mary's students went on the bus trip to the all-male Wabash college in Crawfordsville, Ind. Hoffman attended the trip and deemed it a "great success."
With two resolutions passed and one event under their belt SGA is preparing to finalize their budget next week, Hoffman said.
Clubs and organizations can now begin to request allotments of funds. These funds will cover office supplies and other basics that clubs need to conduct regular business. Co-sponsorships will be available for trips or conferences but will require a separate petition to SGA before funds are granted, Hoffman said.
Another project that SGA is undertaking is researching the computer networks and services of peer institutions in order to propose changes to Saint Mary's ResNet. SGA is currently talking to ResNet to see more ResNet support of SGA and other student organization computers. They would also like to see some printers in the residence halls and for all the halls to be equipped with wireless Internet access, Hoffman and student body vice president Meg Griffin said.
Peer institutions are schools with similar statistics such as enrollment, including some that are also single sex. Some of the peer institutions that Hoffman and Griffin are talking to are Smith College, Mount Holyoke College and Stephen's College, which are all all-female, Hoffman said.
Hoffman and Griffin are still accumulating data on peer institutions but did offer a report of what they have found thus far.
The network administrators of most schools of similar size to Saint Mary's offer support to student organization computers, most ResNet offices hold similar hours to that of Saint Mary's, and about half offer printers in the residence halls, Griffin said.
"We're looking for better justification to ask our ResNet for what we want," Hoffman said.
SGA's new Facebook page is now up and running. Students can "friend" SGA to find links to their events calendar and also to see status updates, which will serve as reminders for events around campus, public relations commissioner Caitlin O'Brien said.
"We've been here a month and we've already had a successful event and passed two resolutions. I think it's going really well," Hoffman said to the Board.
