TSG’s first General Assembly meeting was held yesterday, Jan. 23.
Temple Student Government will host a pep rally in the Student Center atrium today, Jan. 24, from noon to 2 p.m., in an effort to excite students for the Pennsylvania Association of State-related Students rally in Harrisburg. The rally on Jan. 31 will advocate for higher education state funding before Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget announcement in February.
Buses will take students from Main Campus at 9 a.m. to Harrisburg, and return at approximately 4 p.m. TSG will provide breakfast and lunch.
PASS is comprised of student representatives from Lincoln University, Penn State, University of Pittsburgh and Temple to advocate for higher education funding. TSG Vice President of External Affairs Elliot Griffin is currently the PASS executive director.
TSG officers traveled to Lincoln University on Jan. 20 for their semester conference.
In addition to its efforts with PASS, TSG plans to hold a Voter Registration Week of Action to promote student voter turnout.
“We’re going to hold people accountable for the decisions they make,” TSG Student Body President Colin Saltry said. “We’re going to need to step in.”
In response to student complaints about the general education program, TSG Director of Academic Affairs Zach Groff met with the program directors and compiled a survey that will be sent to 4,000 students by the end of January, to rate the performance of the program.
“In order to make a case for students, we need something more specific than the proverbial ‘I’m generally dissatisfied with the [general education] program.’… We have the attention of the director of the gen-ed program, the general education executive committee, the Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, and the Provost himself. This is big,” Groff said in a video address at the first General Assembly meeting of the spring semester.
Every two weeks, TSG officers will hold leadership luncheons in the Johnson and Hardwick cafeteria for students to speak with various administrative officials to ask questions or voice concerns pertaining to their respective office.
“We have a lot of solid relationships with members of the administration,” Saltry said.
The leadership luncheons were inspired by last semester’s “Dinner with the Dean,” whereupon students were invited to speak with Dean of Students Stephanie Ives about the university.
TSG’s “Give a Hoot,” event will make a comeback in either February or March, Saltry said, expanding to three days. Last year, TSG collected nearly 1,300 postcards from students writing their concerns, comments, or questions about Temple in the Student Center atrium. This year, TSG will use multimedia features and YouTube submissions in addition to postcards.
Saltry said the event worked as a “polling of where student perceptions were.”
After last semester’s flawed distribution of SEPTA tokens, TSG plans to reintroduce its Free Token Friday giveaways with a few changes.
“We would send out the 50 emails to the people who won the [tokens] lottery, they would say ‘Oh, great. Thanks, I actually can’t come by today…’ So what we’re working on is an easier process and a fair process,” Saltry said.
TSG could not confirm how the new system will be implemented, but members estimated TSG will start giving away tokens in February.
The Temple Non-Traditional Student Union, which last year partnered with TSG for
National Non-Traditional Student Week, and the Temple Non-Traditional Student Advisory Board will be meeting regularly this semester, co-founder Syreeta Martin said in an email.
Saltry will meet with administrators from academics and computer services on Jan. 24, to discuss students’ issues with Self-Service Banner. Saltry plans to bring up matters of transfer credits, instructor listings and the possibility of waiting lists for filled classes.
Amelia Brust can be reached at abrust@temple.edu.
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