WCSA – Page 3 – The Transcript

WCSA constitution may be revised

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

As the semester winds down, senators continue to work on projects outlined at their last full senate meeting that were designed to effectively spend leftover funds.

At the Nov. 30 full senate meeting of the Wesleyan Council of Student Affairs (WCSA), vice president Emma Drongowski, a senior, said work on the projects will continue next semester.

She also briefly explained to the senate what happened at the last faculty meeting when faculty voted to not allow several students into the meeting.

Drongowski said the decision only applied to that specific meeting. At the next meeting there will be a new vote to decide if guests should be allowed in.

She said if closing the meeting off to students “becomes a trend,” there will be a discussion about other ways students can access information regarding what decisions were made.

The main topic of new business was introduced by junior Caroline Anderson, chair of the Administrative Policy Committee (APC).

APC has revised the WCSA constitution, and a bill to accept the revisions will be voted on next week by the full senate.

“We put in new sections that we felt were more appropriate for WCSA in terms of our function,” Anderson said.

Parts of the constitution were clarified and reorganized, and there was a section added about committees.

Drongowski added that “some cool charts” were also put in.

“It has changed nothing we do in practice currently,” Drongowski said.

WCSA discusses where to spend rollover funds

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

Elections have closed for all positions on the Wesleyan Council of Student Affairs (WCSA) except treasurer, and applications are still being accepted.

Senior Jerry Lherisson, president of WCSA, began the Nov. 16 meeting by offering his congratulations to the new position holders.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys can do,” Lherisson said.

The next president will be Jessica Choate, the vice president will be Sam Schurer and the secretary will be Caroline Anderson, all juniors.

Freshmen Nick Melvin and Caroline Hamlin have been elected as the class of 2019 representatives, sophomores Kaden Thompson and Mallory Griffith as the class of 2018 representatives and juniors Andrew Stock and Jo Meyer as the class of 2017 representatives.

Elections for the full senate are this Friday.

Senior Emma Drongowski, vice president of WCSA, encouraged senators to keep working hard as winter break approaches.

“We still have three weeks in our semester and we still have time to do good work here,” Drongowski said.

The next order of business was to discuss how rollover funds would be spent.

“The funds come from pots of money that weren’t used at the end of the semester or events that were cancelled,” Drongowski said.

The executive members would like the funds to go toward three areas: safety, sustainability and residential affairs.

“We really want to spend this on things that will impact the students in the best way possible,” Drongowski said.

Safety items include adding a crosswalk on Oak Hill Avenue in the area between Welch and Smith and the “Let There Be Lights” project, which aims to add lights to dimly lit areas on campus.

Sustainability items include adding a community garden near Stuyvesant Hall and developing post-consumer composting.

Residential affairs had the most items, and these include replacing the carpet and seating in the Hamilton-Williams atrium, getting wireless printing in the Welch and Hayes Hall computer labs and purchasing swipe cards to track campus involvement and attendance.

Drongowski said all of these ideas were viable, but there was no guarantee every single idea would be accomplished.

The exact amount of rollover funds won’t be known until the end of the semester, but Drongowski said it will be “a substantial amount of money.”

WCSA needs new members

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

Senators hate empty seats.

At the Nov. 9 Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) meeting, student representatives were encouraged to invite their classmates to run for student government.

By the start of the full senate, over ten positions remained unapplied for. The application to join WCSA for the next term can be found on their website and is due Nov. 13.

After some brief introductory remarks, senator Jessica Choate, a junior and chair of the residential affairs committee, introduced her “Let There Be Lights” project to the assembly.

In response to concerns about student safety, Chotae organized an early morning walk-through of the Williams Drive area to determine where street lighting could be improved upon or added to.

Choate proposed that lamp assemblies for existing lights be upgraded, LED lighting be added around Williams Drive, LED porch lighting be installed outside fraternity houses and a wall pack be mounted outside the Haycock art building.

Choate also proposed that the $6200 project be funded by WCSA’s rollover funds.

When Choate had finished making her report to the senate, WCSA’s vice president, senior Emma Drongowski, called for a vote.

The initiative passed unanimously.

OWU officially partners with Dominos

Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Students can expect one more change to Ohio Wesleyan’s food services this fall. At the Nov. 2 Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) meeting, senators learned that Dominos has become OWU’s off-campus pizza provider.

This means that students can use their off-campus food points for Dominos delivery and takeout.

Senior Jerry Lherisson, president of WCSA, told senators that “Dominos will be checking ID numbers and photos at the door when they are delivering.”

Lherisson went on to tell senators that WCSA has a budget surplus and needs to think of ways to spend the extra money.

“We have a great deal of rollover funds,” Lherisson explained. “When clubs ask for an amount of money and they don’t use it for whatever reason, we have extra cash. Right now we have a large amount of rollover funds.”

When asked about the exact surplus figure, Lherrison and senior Emma Drongowski, vice president of WCSA, said the number hasn’t been finalized, but that it is “substantive.”

Drongowski told senators that potential projects for the surplus budget are “things that are one time costs. It’s not like a long-term program that’s being set up because we don’t have the infrastructure to sustain that kind of thing. But we’re excited to spend this money that is from students, for students.”

Lherisson made it clear that WCSA is open to input from all sources.

“If you have any specific ideas please get comment cards in,” Lherisson said.

After senators took some time to remind students about the upcoming election via social media and email, the meeting adjourned.

WCSA prepares for academic forum

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

Give the faculty a piece of your mind.

At the Oct. 26 Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs full senate, senior Meghan Byram invited her fellow senators and the student body as a whole to participate in this year’s academic forum.

The forum will be held on Nov. 3, at noon, in the Benes Rooms. Topics under discussion will include “online class sessions, academics in general and the way we do academic advising,” said Byram.

“This might be only one of the times that students can talk with faculty members in a formal setting” about those issues, Bryam continued. “We are trying to get as many different people as we can to come to this: different students, faculty and student groups.”

The forum will be OWU’s second.

Emma Drongowksi, a senior and vice president of WCSA, also announced that interim Dean of Students Kurt C. Holmes is forming a committee to evaluate the university’s alcohol policy.

He is “looking for some students to be a part of it. If you have strong opinions or want to learn a little more about how we deal with alcohol, you should get involved with that,” Drongowski said.

Senior Jerry Lherisson, president of WCSA, stood up to clarify his partner’s comment.

“We’re not going to have a massive overhaul on how we assess alcohol here,” Lherisson explained. “This is much more to see how we are in line with state and local laws and to see if there has been any new insights in terms of programming or support.”

After Halloween cookies were distributed, the full senate meeting was adjourned.

WCSA amends their constitution

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

In an effort to smooth the transition between student government administrations, the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) amended the portion of their constitution that controls elections.

Senators unanimously passed resolution 15F07 this Monday, Oct. 19, to effect the change.

Before the resolution, chapter 5, article 44 of the WCSA constitution stated that elections should be held over three separate dates. The elections of the WCSA president and vice president, executive officers and general senators were set for the first, second and third Fridays in November, respectively.

Now, executive officers will be voted into office on the first Friday in November. General senators will elected on the second Friday in November.

The change allows WCSA to begin the new year with a fresh senate, smoothing the transition time for student representatives.

After the senators broke into brief committee meetings, another short senate came to a close.

OWU’s branding platform presented to senators

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

After short reports by the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) committee chairs, Will Kopp presented OWU’s new publicity strategies to the Oct. 12 full senate.

Kopp, Ohio Wesleyan’s chief communications officer, calls the fresh approach to marketing the “OWU Branding Platform.” Changes include a major overhaul of the website, updated promotional materials sent out to prospective students and alumni and physical modifications to campus.

Facing a declining enrollment, Kopp and his office of about seven full-time staffers asked why OWU wasn’t drawing students. “Research showed that OWU was not students’ No. 1 choice,” he said. “There was no emotional connection for them. We had a lack of identity in the marketplace.”

The new identity is all about impact.

“We wanted to tell the OWU story in a bold, compelling way,” said Kopp. “It’s a crowed marketplace out there. We had to be bold, to stand out, to highlight our strengths and to differentiate us from all our competitors. We wanted to increase enrollment right now.”

Focus groups were organized and an outside branding consultant, MindPower, was called in. After only two months, the communications office settled on a theme: hunger. Kopp emphasized that this theme is encapsulated in a metaphor, not a tagline.

“OWU students are hungry,” Kopp said. “They are insatiable problem solvers, they feast on a bounty of interconnected experiences. Basically, OWU students are hungry to get involved.”

When he had reached the end of his slideshow, Kopp asked for questions. When that didn’t get any response, he asked for complaints.

Sophomore Areena Arora, chair of the academic affairs committee asked if “we are using ‘Opposite of Ordinary’ at all anymore?”

Kopp said that no, the former tagline would not be used in the future.

Senator Billy George, a senior, asked if there was “anywhere online I can find out more about the OWU connection? Because I still don’t understand it.”

Kopp said that the current website has a wealth of information about the OWU Connection and that the new website will have even more.

Senior Emma Drongowski, vice president of WCSA, asked if there had been “any response or feedback from students so far?”

“Yes,” Kopp said, “on social media it has been overwhelmingly positive. Lots of students and parents have been seen taking pictures with the new banners and putting them online. We even had one of the city managers of Delaware, whose son is starting to look at colleges, say that the OWU promotional piece they got in the mail was far better than other schools’.”

Kopp concluded his presentation–and the full senate meeting–by saying that school visits were up, a trend he hopes continues.

Constitutional amendments in the works

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

A new election schedule for class representatives and executive positions, including the student body president, is being discussed by the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA).

At the Oct. 5 meeting of the full senate, senator Elizabeth Raphael, a senior, said that her campus relations committee is revising the dates and process for student elections.

“We have created a proposed timeline for elections in which elections for both executive committee and student senators will be in November, before Thanksgiving break,” Raphael said.

Raphael added that under the proposed changes, the “intent to run form will be online, eliminating paper forms. And those running for executive committee will be automatically given the option to also run for student senator elections.”

Emma Drongowski, a senior and vice president of WCSA, reminded senators that, because student elections are governed by the WCSA constitution, any changes to the process would require full senate approval.

The revised election guidelines will be presented and voted on by the senate within the month.

Chair of the academic affairs committee Areena Arora, a sophomore, announced the final date for the upcoming academic forum: Nov. 3, in the Benes rooms during the noon hour.

Before finishing the short meeting a full twenty minutes ahead of time, senators passed a resolution to approve the appointments of sophomores Ebosehon Imeokparia and Charlie Kottler to the campus technology council. The resolution was passed unanimously.

Academic forum will consider online science classes

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

On Sept. 28, when senator Mackenzie Sommers told the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) that the 2015 academic forum’s agenda will include online classes, one WCSA advisor was especially interested.

Broadly, the academic forum will be about “Course Offerings,” but one of the specific issues faculty and students will address is the possibility of online science classes for non-majors.

“Did that idea come from you or the provost?” professor Mark Mitton-Fry of the chemistry department wondered.

Sommers, a senior and member of the academic affairs committee, told MittonFry and all assembled that the idea had come from the students themselves. Many nonscience majors were concerned about taking classes with labs, Sommers reported, and they thought online classes might be an easier way of fulfilling their distribution requirements.

“As a science person, that’s the number one reason that I would be against that,” Mitton-Fry responded. “Purposely designing a class for relaxed rigor doesn’t do it for me.”

The back and forth ended on this last point, but the debate concerning online classes is sure to continue at the academic forum. Though a date has not been set, the meeting typically takes place in October. This semester’s forum will be OWU’s second.

Bob Wood, director of Public Safety (PS), had less contentious news for WCSA’s senators. He told the group that PS had made some changes to various parking lots on campus. Near the fraternities and Williams drive houses, B lots were converted to C lots. The same change has been made to a lot outside of the Honors House.

Jerry Lherisson, president of WCSA, also announced that after the next Archway meeting, he and Emma Drongowski, WCSA’s vice president, would have more information about the vacant dean of students position and the termination of Martin Eisenberg, OWU’s former dean of academic affairs.

WCSA welcomes seven new senators

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

President Jerry Lherisson, a senior, could not mask his surprise this morning. As he began the Sept. 21 full senate meeting, he exclaimed, “Wow, there are lots of new faces that I haven’t seen before!”

Lherisson was alluding to seven new students in the back of the room. After an atypical application-based election process, these students were nominated to serve as senators for the fall 2015 term.

A unanimous vote by the full senate made it official: senior Shelli Reeves; juniors Jo Meyer and Mallory Griffith; and freshmen Caroline Hamlin, Michael Wadsworth, Nicholas Melvin and Will Ashburn are WCSA’s newest senators.

Lherisson also announced that the new library vending machines, which replaced the late night Library Cafe, could be outfitted with swipe card readers.

“We asked them if the machines could not just take credit cards and cash,” said Lherisson. “The administration said, ‘let’s see what we can do.'”

Senator Jessica Choate, a junior and chair of the residential affairs committee, informed the senate about her plans to increase the amount of lights on campus.

“On Thursday, at 6:15 a.m., I will be walking through campus with administrators, pointing out where it’s too dark and where we can get more lights to fix the problem,” Choate said.

The meeting adjourned with handshakes with and many “congratulations ” to the new senators.