The DePauw Student Government (DSG) has been helping the administration navigate the COVID-19 situation on campus.
The DSG is a group of DePauw students elected by DePauw students or appointed by student organizations to represent the DePauw student body, allocate funds and organize events. According to the DSG’s constitution, it is made up of an executive board, a senate, an allocations board and a general assembly.
The executive board determines the goals of the DSG, the senate hears student concerns and hosts events, the allocation board determines funding and the general assembly provides representation for student organizations.
Nathaniel Swanson, the Vice President of Public Relations, says, “We recognize and work with a lot of the student organizations from campus, and we’re in constant communication with them… If they have any concerns for their individual community on campus or the larger DePauw community, they can come to us.” The student government will look “for ways [they] can advocate for those problems.” The DSG has also been involved in planning events like the weekend food trucks for students on campus.
The group works with the administration and Swanson says, “We’ve been submitting recommendations for the COVID Health and Safety Guidelines. We were consulted over the summer about how the fall [semester] should operate.” He says that members of the DSG also serve on committees formed by the administration.
“I, for example,” Swanson says, “serve on the curriculum committee--so the whole thing about the pass/fail options is something that I was consulted on along with the other members of the committee, and we suggested how the university should go forward.”
The DSG is currently still accepting applications for senate. The applications are available on their Instagram, @depauw_studentgov, which Swanson says is the best place to get information about the DSG. The group recently published profiles of their new executive board members. Students are also welcome to DM the Instagram if they have questions or want to know more.
The official website is https://www.depauw.edu/orgs/dsg/, which includes the DSG’s constitution and information about the group and its activities and is in the process of being updated.