I am writing this letter in response to a Breaking News article by Joe Pelletier entitled “Dance Company charter revoked after longstanding violation.”  It is a fact that Dance Company has been in violation of SGA’s Chartering Policy for quite some time, but no previous Student Government has taken care of the issue in the past.  When the opportunity was presented to the Public Relations committee, immediate action was appropriately taken.

At this point it does not matter what the previous Vice Presidents of Public Relations didn’t do, what matters is that the current Public Relations committee made the right decision.  I was quoted as saying I have a “busy agenda,” but I would like to clarify what this consists of.  The Public Relations committee is charged with collaborating three service projects per semester; publicizing and promoting events and goals of SGA; providing weekly table tents for all organizations requesting promotions; creating stronger relations with all organizations; voting on charter recommendations and removals; and planning the first campus wide community service project: Quinnipiac’s Big Event.  This “busy agenda” has enabled the Public Relations committee to create and grant opportunities to all organizational leaders and students on campus.

Unfortunately in this instance, the Dance Company violations slipped through the cracks, despite our efforts to make improvements for organizations and students.  A mistake was made, appropriate actions were taken, and now we will move forward as an organization and learn from our mistake.  Our Organizational Chair is currently comprising a system for the Public Relations committee to closely monitor organizations’ constitutions and chartered/ recognized status.  Holly Hitchen, the Organizational Chair, will be creating this system to ensure that a mistake like this does not happen again.  With this new system, we will have access to the dates that organizations are recognized, chartered, or have had their charter removed.  This information will provide us with the ability to do a monthly review of the status of an organization, and we will also be reviewing the constitutions of organizations annually to ensure that they comply with our policies.

From this point, the Public Relations committee will take a closer look at the status of student run organizations.  Our committee will make sure that all are complying with our policies while continuing to create opportunities for the organizations which abide by our Student Government policy.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Walts
Vice President of Public Relations
Student Government Association