After swearing in its newly elected members at its meeting Sept. 28, the Student Government Association (SGA) discussed the success of the online election as well as new developments in the PrintSense policy for student organizations.
Despite the sharp increase in voters this election, Dario Silvestro, alternate student trustee and election chair, noted that the number still only represents less than 20 percent of the student population.
She hopes to improve voter participation from 1,081 to 2,300 for the spring, a number that represents approximately 40 percent of the student population.
SGA members also discussed having separate PrintSense accounts for student organizations.
Organizations often require the use of the College's printers in order to serve the College community, and concerns were raised for student leaders when PrintSense, which places a limit for each individual student, was implemented.
"Although the PrintSense issue is what engendered this discussion, organizational logons serve a manifold purpose," S. Lee Whitesell, vice president of Academic Affairs, said.
"In addition to preventing printer-prone organizations from placing the print burden on their student leaders, it will also allow a perpetual record of those organizations' histories, activities and policies," he said.
"Future generations of an organization's leadership will be able to log in to the same account and find the archives and documents relevant to their work."
Organizations will have to apply for the accounts. Final approval for a separate account will most likely be determined by both the vice president of Academic Affairs and Information Technology (IT), Whitesell said.
Kate Fitzgerald, senator of Education, also discussed negotiations between SGA and Campus Police on the issue of loading/unloading passes.
Currently, students must go to Campus Police headquarters, located in the Administrative Services Building, in order to get a pass when loading or unloading vehicles.
SGA has pushed to allow hall offices to distribute the passes so students do not have to make the trip back and forth to the Administrative Services Building.
However, Fitzgerald said Campus Police is fearful that the passes would be abused and that it would be difficult to monitor the 15-minute maximum time limit the pass allows.
Negotiations will continue, Fitzgerald said.
