Student Center leaders announced new on-campus event guidelines for organizations.
Students, faculty and administrators gathered in room 200C of the Student Center yesterday for Temple Student Government’s second State of Campus Address of the Spring 2010 semester.
The meeting was kicked off by Student Center Operations Director Jason Levy and Reservations Coordinator Alicia Ferguson, both of whom introduced themselves to the student assembly and reviewed existing and new policies. 
The two emphasized that students or organizations looking to book complex events – meaning that extensive or outside assistance in event-planning is needed – are required to file event requests 20 business days prior to the event and meet with Ferguson.
Levy announced that starting in the Fall, any student who makes a reservation for a chairs-only setup will get it free.
“We’re going to try to work it out so that most student organizations that do want a different set-up other than lecture are in specific rooms,” Ferguson added. “The reason why we charge for that is that for us to freshen up a room that’s already lecture for an event that is lecture as well, there’s not a lot of time to do that. To go from circle, to square, to lecture involves a lot more time, therefore we’d have to build in extra set-up time.”
“We are the only truly student-first space on campus,” Levy said of the Student Center. “If not for you, we wouldn’t be here.”
To get the crowd active, Services Review Chair for TSG Sean O’Connell and Chief of Staff Jarae Hines initiated an ice breaker – “Head over Heels” – in which rows of students sitting next to each other had to maneuver a TSG sports bag under their legs and pass it to the individuals sitting next to them. Participants continued the pattern until the bag reached the end of the row and then reversed the game back to the first person in the row. The second and third rows in the middle aisle fought for the winning rows.
TSG left enough promotional items, including lanyards and pens, in the sports bags for each person in the row.
Big announcements made during the meeting included Student-Senator Kyle Goldstein raising awareness of an issue involving elevators in the Engineering and Architecture building and urging students to fill out the survey, regarding the issue on tucommunity.com.
Student Senator Natalie Ramos-Castillo spoke next about a tentative feature being addressed at the next TSG Senate meeting: wireless printing. Students would go to a Web site – Paley Library’s, for example – print their documents from a remote location and swipe their Owl Cards to print their documents when they get to Main Campus.
“It deletes the amount of people influxing at 12 o’clock trying to print in the library or TECH Center while everyone is on Facebook, looking at you like you’re crazy for trying to print something that’s due,” Ramos-Castillo said.
Jessica Reed, director of local affairs, reminded the room that the 3Cs Campaign is ongoing throughout at the semester and that students eager to get involved should contact her or Jamira Burley, director of community affairs. Main Campus Program Board then reminded everyone of the April 13 Spring Fling dance, which is eighties- and nineties-fashion themed.
One of the final announcements caught the interest of everyone in the room. Student-Senator from the College of Liberal Arts Eva Alkasov informed the assembly of the upcoming Sex Fest, Temple’s first-ever Sexual Awareness Week taking place April 5 to April 9.
“Let’s assume that everyone in this room is sexually active,” Alkasov said. “They say 70 percent of people who are sexually active will have [HPV] at some point in their life. This is why I’m planning Sex Fest.”
After describing entertaining and educational events planned during the week, Alkasov advised anyone who wanted to get involved to contact her.
Josh Fernandez can be reached at josh@temple.edu.
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