Student government plans to make over allocations board, assess other goals

448

As the school year comes to a close, student government is working to finish putting goals into action and to finalize changes for the upcoming year.

Student government met on Sunday evening to discuss the Government Evaluation Committee (GEC) report and to discuss other business.

The final GEC report has been produced this semester to implement further changes to improve the student government as a whole.

The report focuses on three areas: allocations, student representatives and the executive board.

Student body president Charles Pierre said the report has been well executed and that the government has taken another look at the allocations board specifically to make improvements.

"We realized we initiated a lot of programs and white papers, but students want to be informed. We are rechecking and addressing the allocations process that wasn't addressed in the first report," Pierre said.

The allocations board was thoroughly scrutinized and will undergo extensive changes for improvement. The biggest change will affect all new organizations - in order for allocations to better adhere to their budget and avoid running out of funds in the future, they will be creating a tier system which will rank organizations according to how much money the can receive, based on their funding needs.

The goal of the tier system is to avoid clubs asking to be recognized with no intention of needing funds and then later asking for funds, which the allocations board does not have the means to supply. The tier system will force clubs to petition for funds, which the allocations board would then have to approve.

Student government also plans to have more open communication between the allocations board and rest of the government to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Finally, the student government plans to make allocations board a more formal operation by implementing a formal training process for all of its members.

Aside from discussing proposed changes to the allocations board, student government also discussed their desire to become more open with the student body as to what the are working on in accomplishing.

While student government is creating many new goals, this semester they have already accomplished many previously set goals. Within the next two weeks, two of student government's goals for the semester will be checked off the list.

During Little 5, student government will combine forces with the Union Board to host free food and a DJ in between to men's and women's races allowing students to come together to enjoy each others company, fulfilling a hope of the student government.

On April 27, there will be an alumni panel giving students the chance to hear from recent DePauw graduates, as a part of student government's goal to strengthen connections between current students and alumni.

This panel will also serve as a trial run for future ideas to invite alumni to campus to talk with students.

Pierre said this panel will give students the chance to start looking ahead to their future.

"We are fulfilling this thing that alumni wants, but we are also interested in giving juniors, sophomores and freshman the opportunity to plan for their future," Pierre said. "Things like this don't come very often and I hope we can capitalize on them."