The Student Government Association considered granting two organizations club status during its Wednesday, Oct. 13, and Wednesday, Oct. 20 general body meetings.
The TCNJ Engineering Honor Society earned club status by a majority vote. The SGA will decide the fate of Campus 2.0, a social networking website exclusively for College students, after a legal review of several of the site’s policies.
Senior electrical engineering major Chris Brinton presented on behalf of the Engineering Honor Society.
“(The College’s) engineering department has grown to be quite reputable,” Brinton said. “We’re trying to establish a chapter of Tau Beta Pi at (the College).”
Tau Beta Pi is a national engineering honor society. The organization will send a representative next year to assess whether a chapter should be set up at the College, according to Brinton.
Should Tau Beta Pi approve the College, the society will establish its sixth New Jersey chapter here.
“I think the School of Engineering would greatly benefit from the presence of an honor society,” said Brian Franco, senior biomedical engineering major.
The TCNJ Engineering Honor Society functioned without club status for a year and a half. It became an official club after a majority vote approved it.
SGA also heard a presentation from Campus 2.0, an organization that hopes to establish a social networking site for College students.
“You need a (College) e-mail to join. It’s kind of like how Facebook used to be,” said Brent Keyes, senior business management major. “It’s basically going to keep students up to date on … what’s going on around campus.”
Certain SGA general body members asked whether it would provide the campus with anything it didn’t already have.
“What sets Campus 2.0 apart from services and resources we can access on Facebook and the (College) website?” asked Kevin Hodulik, senior math and secondary education major.
Others mentioned liability issues.
“If you were a student group, you’d technically be part of the College,” said Olaniyi Solebo, SGA executive president and junior political science major.
SGA executive vice president and junior political science major Corey Dwyer explained that this meant the College could be held accountable for anything posted on the site.
Ultimately, the SGA tabled Campus 2.0’s request for club status pending a review of legal issues surrounding the website by general counsel Tom Mahoney.
The next SGA general body meeting takes place Oct. 24 at 3 p.m. in Brower Student Center 202W.
Emily Brill can be reached at brill3@tcnj.edu.
