The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a resolution to reinstate ProfRecord and granted four new organizations club status at its general body meeting on Wednesday Feb. 24.
Senators and class council members heard first from members of The Perspective, an on-campus news magazine and TCNJ Holistic Wellness, a club devoted to exploring natural stress-combating methods such as yoga and meditation.
The Magic Circle, an organization focusing on video game design and production, and TCNJ Figure Skating, a club for current and prospective figure skaters to explore their passion and potentially compete in collegiate figure-skating competitions, followed with short presentations about their clubs’ missions and long-term plans.
After some discussion, TCNJ Holistic Wellness, The Magic Circle and TCNJ Figure Skating passed unanimously.
Olaniyi Solebo, sophomore political science and economics double major and vice president of legal and governmental affairs, expressed his support for TCNJ Holistic Wellness.
“There is no commonality between this group and any other recognized group on campus,” Solebo said.
Also receiving praise from the SGA for its originality was TCNJ Figure Skating.
“I don’t think we have anything like them, and I think it’s something that a lot of people could get involved in,” said Trish Krug, junior early childhood education and Spanish double major and vice president of community relations. “It’s interesting and different and fun.”
The SGA was pleased with The Magic Circle’s intention to focus on the design and production of video games rather than the game-play experience.
The Perspective was passed by a majority vote, with some dissent among SGA members about the prudence of putting the College’s name behind occasionally inflammatory press.
“They’re asking to put the name of (the College) behind highly biased opinions,” Thomas Samper, senior engineering major, said.
The club was ultimately passed due to a consensus reached during discussion that the College does not necessarily advocate the opinions voiced in a subjective student publication.
Also passed was a resolution calling for the reinstatement of the course selection tool ProfRecord.
According to R-S2010-03, the resolution’s official title, ProfRecord was “a tool that provided students with grade distributions and student commentary … and has been a valuable tool used by students in (the) registration process.”
It was discontinued in fall 2009 when the amount of data coming into the system made it difficult for ProfRecord’s small staff to continue its upkeep. Since then, the SGA has been searching for a “cost-effective alternative from third party vendors,” according to the resolution, but has failed to find one suitable.
The resolution calls for the Academic Affairs Office and Information Technology (IT) and Enrollment Services to reconsider their decision to discontinue the course selection tool and assist the SGA in relaunching an improved ProfRecord.
Gina Lauterio, political science and philosophy double major and vice president of academic affairs, assisted in drafting the resolution, along with other members of the Academic Affairs Committee.
“Students have told us how it’s a valuable tool,” Laeoterio said.
