Temple Student Government representatives vowed to serve the community in any way possible.
Representatives said they kept their promise last Wednesday, while they handed out pretzels to a crowd of commuters at a bus stop on Broad and Berks streets. The event gave TSG an opportunity to show its support to the students, staff and faculty members who were affected by the Oct. 31 SEPTA labor strike, which ended Monday, Nov. 7.
TSG requires all of its members to participate in at least one community service event.
Several representatives chose to participate in “Haunted Dorms,” an annual event where local grade school students go trick-or-treating in the university’s residence halls. Community Services Chair Raquel Sandiford said she was impressed with the number of volunteers who participated.
“Thank you for all of your hard work,” Sandiford said in a statement read by Secretary Dafney Tales at the TSG meeting last Monday. “You left the little kids smiling.”
TSG members also visited a Freshman Outreach program held at the Johnson and Hardwick residence halls last Tuesday night.
Vice President of Student Affairs Cristina Ackas said TSG used the program to introduce themselves to the freshmen. She said representatives from Career Development Services also spoke to the audience.
“They told them how to go about declaring a major,” Ackas said. “[Upperclass] students also came in to discuss their respective majors.”
Diversity Affairs Co-Chairs Juan Galeano and Daniela Mendoza said committee members and other volunteers would help the Office of Admissions write postcards to prospective Temple students this month. The postcards are supposed to describe the distinct Temple experience of each individual student writer, according to Mendoza.
“Some of you guys may have received one of these postcards when you were initially looking at Temple,” she said. “We want to keep the cycle going.”
In his report, President Oscar Chow said he received several complaints about the OWLoop map from students who claimed it is too difficult to read.
“I sat down with administrators to discuss this and the general consensus [was] that they do not specialize in mapmaking,” Chow said. “So they are challenging the students, and I am challenging every one of you – if someone can come up with a decent design, we can have it changed.”
In addition, Chow said he has recently heard from students who said that the Ambler shuttle tends to leave at the same time that classes end, causing many students to miss the bus. Chow also said a couple of the Temple shuttles do not have a handrail system in place and it could be a liability to the university.
“Students are falling over inside the shuttles. A lot of people are sitting down on the floor of the shuttles and some are even forced to sit on other students’ laps … It’s true. I have pictures,” Chow said drawing laughter from the general assembly. “It’s an issue that we’re working on.”
Tyson McCloud can be reached at Tyson@temple.edu.
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