PARKING
Student Government Association (SGA) President Austin Harrison met with President Underwood very recently, and in that meeting, they discussed parking. President Underwood told Harrison that he wanted students to know that 120 parking spots should be coming online next semester.
On the same note, the parking deck across Mercer University Drive will be online for the October 3 football game, which should alleviate parking stress on game day. [sidebar title="" align="right" background="on" border="none" shadow="on"]
Dates to Remember
September
23: Contract Services Survey will be closed
24: Macon an Impact (5 p.m.)
25: International Bears Association annual Field Day (3 p.m.)
26: MerServe Service Saturday (8:30 a.m.)
27: Pilgrimage to Penfield (10:30 a.m.)
28: Bear Forum (6 p.m.)
October
3: United Way Day at Mercer football game
5: Bear Grants Senate
13-14 : QEP Visionary Panel
22: United Way "Read2Succeed" Macon-Bibb County event[/sidebar]
PILGRIMAGE
Pilgrimage to Penfield is this weekend and registration is nearly full. Senator Fulton said that as of Sept. 21, there were already 560 registered -- and that’s six days before the event.
DEBATE CLUB
Jaz Buckley presented the senate with the idea for a new Intramural Debate Club (not to be confused with the university's pre-existing Debate Team).
Buckley said that she got the idea after she won the Top Speaker award at the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) tournament in March 2015. A lot of people expressed interest in joining the Debate Team, but a lot of them were hesitant because they didn’t have enough experience or because they feared it would take up too much of their time.
Buckley said that she sees this team as a solution: it would allow novice debaters more time to practice before competing in tournaments and would be a less demanding introduction to debate. She pointed to the Forensics Team at the University of Oregon as a model for the organization that would be here.
She also said there is a lot of potential for the debate team to incorporate a community engagement element because college students in the club could help high school debate teams develop and sharpen their arguments.
The senate approved the creation of the organization.
MAC PARTY AND UNITED WAY
Senator Lewis told everyone that the Mac Party, which his committee collaborated with community organizations on, was a success.
"[The Mac Party] exceeded all of our expectations,” he said.
Lewis also highlighted the upcoming United Way “Read to Succeed” event, which will be occurring October 22.
He said this will be a great community engagement project where students will be in classrooms across Macon-Bibb county to read the book “Not Norman” to students. There will also be a United Way emphasis at the October 3 football game, he said.
“The goal is to put a book in the hands of every child,” Lewis said.
More details for the United Way events will be coming out soon.
CAMPUS ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE
Senator Scherf is currently working with a wide array of students, both on and off the senate, to develop the Campus Engagement Committee. The committee has already been created, but the senators spent time Sept. 21 discussing exactly what the duties and scope of the new committee are going to be, as outlined in the proposed amendment to the SGA bylaws.
The concern that several senators expressed was how future senates might interpret the wording of Senator Scherf’s proposed committee description. As a result, after some time spent editing the article in the senate, the senators moved to send the legislation back to the Campus Engagement committee. They agreed that it might be easier to make the revisions to the article in an informal meeting. Then, Senator Scherf will bring the revised legislation back to the floor for voting.
View the full SGA senate minutes here.
