On behalf of the President of the Student Government Association, this begins a weekly or bi-weekly account of the progress Student Government has made on issues submitted by the student body.
The Student Government Association knows, as Abraham Lincoln put it, you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but we are working to try to please more of you more extensively, more often.
With the beginning of the second semester, SGA, met for its annual winter training in order to refocus and re-motivate each other for a productive end to the school year. Here are some of the issues we are working on finding resolutions towards.
We have obtained numerous concerns regarding your displeasure with the new policy charging students 1.9% every time we use a credit card to put money on our coveted Q-cards. In speaking with Dr. Carreiro, the Dean of Students, he relayed the message from other administrators stating the school was losing money when students would pay their tuition using their Q-card because of the fee credit card companies mandate. However, in our defense, SGA argues the transaction is a cost of doing business and the university should pay it, not its students. How often do you go to a clothing store, pay with a credit card and then the retailer says we will be charging you for your business? Never.that’s what I thought. Needless to say, SGA is still trying to persuade administrators to remove the 1.9% fee.
The new printing policy, giving each student an allowance and once the amount has been exhausted, students are then charged. Charging students has also been high on your “things I don’t like at the university.” Let me enlighten you about how this came about because I feel that would shed some light on the matter at hand. A few years back, a student, who graduated and was an elected member to SGA, went to administrators with the then- massive-paper-pile, aptly placed next to every printer in the library and complained that his tuition dollars were paying for the wasted paper. Administrators have thought of several systems, but could not find a “fair” solution for all students. They decided to give each student the same allowance never passing up the possibility that some students would spend more of their allowance, more quickly because some majors demand an excessive amount of printing .i.e. anyone in the School of Health Science. Talking with the dean’s of each school, they had no idea that students were exceeding their allowance and encouraged us to put any student who complains in contact with the appropriate dean. The Vice President of Student Concerns, Andrew Clark, is still working with the deans and students, who have exhausted their funds. Feel free to contact Andy if you are one of these students.
Another issue you all have indirectly submitted to our Web site, www.QUconcerns.com, is the communication between administration and students, or lack there of. Many of you feel that the university makes decisions and does not take students into account. Although I do sometimes share the same concern, I would like to inform you how we plan to rectify this problem. Similar to the memo that we received on behalf of President Lahey announcing the new campus in North Haven, I would like to create a regular occurrence of similar announcements. These announcements would inform students of policy changes, happenings of the university and what projects the university will soon be working on. We believe this communication between students and administration is essential.
SGA meets weekly in SC 207 at 4:15 p.m. All are welcome. We look forward to seeing you at cabinet and committee events as well as the semi-formal at the Chevrolet Theatre April 20.
