News-Letter

Student Council (StuCo) convened for the first time on Tuesday night to outline its intentions for social improvements on campus and the semester's agenda for student events, in the hopes of developing a stronger community on campus.

Director of Student Involvement Jason Heiserman, a position previously held by Jeff Grodon-Thomas, is expected to improve the relations between members of the student body and StuCo to ensure a united agenda for undergraduate life.

Executive President Laura Hansell promised improved communication between different student groups on campus. "In terms of plans for this year, the theme is all about cooperation and community. There are tons of student groups on campus providing programming and services for the whole school, and my goal this year is to help coordinate them all to best serve the student body."

Ron Benjamin, vice president for student life, reported the progress of his efforts to arrange for the placement of first aid kits in each residence hall and security shuttle. This will keep students with minor injuries from having to call the HERU medical service. Another Student Life project is to make higher-quality food available to students in the Bag-It section set up by the dining halls during finals week.

"We figure that healthy, hearty food from the meal plan is a much more comforting way to go through exams than eating from the vending machine day in and day out," Benjamin said of their plans for Bag-It.

Vice President for Entertainment Cedric Chan expressed the need for further cooperation from the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP) before event planning could move forward. No representatives of HOP, which is chartered by the Student Council, were present at the meeting.

Before the meeting Chan stated more broadly that his goals are to use Council funds "more effectively than last year" in the spirit of increased cooperation between campus organizations. He added that in the past, more entertainment money was spent on events early in the year, leaving second semester "very dry" in terms of fun student activities.

Together with the Student Council Entertainment Commission, Chan intends to "add to the huge selection of activities other student groups already have planned for the year."

Junior class President Natasha Singh spoke of ongoing efforts to coordinate sponsorship of weekly Wednesday night blues and jazz performances in Charles Commons by Peabody musicians. Plans such as these are intended to enrich and enliven student life at the new dining center, as well as encourage more unity between the Homewood and Peabody campuses.

The Student Council, in cooperation with the Resident Advisory Board, is working to draft a Residents' Bill of Rights. The purpose is to clarify policies regarding features of residential life such as alcohol, noise and privacy (or lack thereof) that the Undergraduate Student Handbook may leave unexplained. It allows students to "know exactly what their rights and responsibilities are," Sophomore class President Sonny Chandrasekhar, said. This may help relax the student-RA relationship: RA's will not seem like they are "out to get" students for no reason.

"Previously, [StuCo] focused a lot of time and energy on relating the complaints about housing and dining to the administration," Hansell said. A major difference this year is that with the new dining program in place, there are far fewer complaints of this sort.

"Therefore [StuCo] is going to focus its efforts on ensuring that the whole student body is able to enjoy these changes," she continued. Efforts in this vein include ongoing discussions with administrators on planning senior nights at Charles Commons and special upperclassmen dinners at Fresh Food Caf8e. This will ensure that upperclassmen can "try the food we so sorely missed under Sodexho," Hansell said.

Associate Dean of Student Life and new faculty advisor Ralph Johnson expressed confidence in President Laura Hansell's ability to lead the StuCo, "I have been thoroughly impressed with Laura's abilities. She can and will do a phenomenal job." The Council members, as "stewards of student financial resources," will be held up to standards of the "greatest integrity." Dr. Johnson sees them as "conscientious leaders" of this "vital" organization.

Student Council is hoping to initiate further changes in response to campus-wide student opinion.

"Another one of our larger projects, headed by sophomore VP, Jess Buicko, is to provide a first-aid kit in each residence hall building on the main floor as well as with each security shuttle so that any students with minor injuries who are out at night can just stop in for a band-aid instead of having to Call "HERO" since it isn't a true emergency. We are also working on putting comment boxes at each dining hall and in the library to increase feedback, improving the efficiency of the Charles Commons food vendors once they all arrive, and trying to improve the selection of newer movies that A level carries," Benjamin said.

"In terms of plans for this year, the theme is all about cooperation and community," Hansell said.

Hansell explained, for example, that Student Council has a vice president of entertainment who is in charge of programming separate from the "HOP" that is also a StuCo-chartered organization and in charge of programming. In the past these groups have operated fairly independently, and each with moderate success. This year, StuCo is pushing for the groups to cooperate in order to focus more energy and resources on programming to provide a better undergraduate social experience.

She continued that the issues important to students will shift this year. In previous years, poor eating conditions under Sodexho were under much debate and focus. With fewer complaints anticipated on the problem this year, StuCo is planning to redirect its efforts to address other important concerns among the student body.

Hansell reported that Dean Burger received the idea of senior nights at Charles Commons and the upperclassmen dinner at the Fresh Food Cafe with considerable enthusiasm.

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