Friends, romans, countrymen,
lend me your ears....or just your money!!!

The time of the revolution has come. It is time to take over student government. Impeaching the Pirate captain will not be tolerated, nor any efforts to do so. If you are with me, together we can make this dream a possibility. DISBAND THE STUDENT SENATE!!!

(nasty details on student senate to follow sometime).

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 8:27 PM. Reason : .]

3/21/2006 8:26:09 PM

nobody hates Student Government to do anything about it

instead...we're just indifferent to it

and life goes on

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 8:27 PM. Reason : it's like Herb...]

3/21/2006 8:27:17 PM

More Like COUG AGAINST STUDENT GOVERNMENT

[Edited on March 21, 2006 at 8:28 PM. Reason : g/s/p]

3/21/2006 8:27:50 PM

ah student government

a bunch of nerdy overachivers trying to pad their resumes and have their egos fellated

3/21/2006 8:31:00 PM

Get back to work Vir

3/21/2006 8:50:30 PM

bttt...

3/21/2006 9:01:14 PM

3/21/2006 9:02:25 PM

Chit Chat ... or post your wonderful SouthPark Viva la revolution ...

3/21/2006 9:05:40 PM

show your discontent... join a facebook group.

http://ncst.facebook.com/group_profile.php?gid=9569

but seriously, it tells how to remove student senate if anyone was serious about doing it.

3/21/2006 9:08:41 PM

Which lizard am I supposed to vote for, again?

3/21/2006 9:13:17 PM

3/21/2006 9:24:55 PM

Quote :

"More Like COUG AGAINST STUDENT GOVERNMENT"

fucking winner right here

3/21/2006 9:40:38 PM

Hey Vir, umm...

Do you have any idea what a shitty, lazy, ineffectual Student Body President The Pirate Captain was? He NEEDS to go. The Student Senate is actually doing its job and working FOR students by getting rid of a lousy example of a Student Body President.

He NEEDS to walk the plank, yarrrgh!!!!

3/21/2006 9:42:03 PM

well obviously the students dont give a damn how he was in office

because they elected a FUCKING PIRATE

because STUDENT GOVERNMENT DOESNT FUCKING MATTER

they dont do a god damn thing

3/21/2006 9:45:49 PM

'he Student Senate is actually doing its job and working "

the majority of students wanted him in office

his term is almost over, theres no point in senate wasting their time focusing on him.

Student gov having internal struggles doesnt make whichever part that wins the struggle look good, it makes the system as a whole look bad.

How much time does student gov spend on issues not governing itselfs? It seems like its always a ticket scandal this, or impeachment that, or stupid offensive resolution the other that it then ends up spending time apologizing for.

It atleast seems like it spends half its time screwing up & the other half dealing with the screw ups, and very little time on anything substantive.

3/21/2006 10:05:07 PM

Viva la Revolution!!!!

3/21/2006 10:14:55 PM

[OLD]

3/21/2006 11:28:38 PM

I just got out of a meeting with Vir, and I think this thread can be attributed to no sleep and lots of coffee.

3/21/2006 11:34:58 PM

Quote :

"Do you have any idea what a shitty, lazy, ineffectual Student Body President The Pirate Captain was? He NEEDS to go. The Student Senate is actually doing its job and working FOR students by getting rid of a lousy example of a Student Body President. He NEEDS to walk the plank, yarrrgh!!!!"

shut the fuck up dumbass

3/22/2006 12:13:56 AM

The Pirate Captain is no shitty lazy president, and student senate is worthless!! Like Supplanter said, his term is almost over, why dont they concentrate on bigger issues instead of pushing for his impeachment, despite of it being blocked by higher authorities (which was a great decision btw).
They should get on with trying to do more for constructive things instead of trying to undermine someone that won by the biggest margin in student senate history!!

3/22/2006 1:18:16 AM

That'd be like staging a coup against the Free Soil Party.

3/22/2006 1:36:03 AM

motherfucker I've been saying this in threads for months

3/22/2006 1:50:35 AM

V=ir

3/22/2006 1:57:31 AM

http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=394242&page=1#8446690
http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=393527&page=1#8433987
http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=391639&page=2#8386585

I'm sure theres more but I'm not gonna look for them

3/22/2006 1:58:41 AM

Im with you Lionheart, and so are alot of other people that i know.

3/22/2006 2:04:58 AM

I don't care how lame it sounds, I'm down with this revolution. I've been screaming my head off about it for weeks.

If the Pirate Captain were actually impeached, my new primary goal in life would be to attend every senate meeting and disrupt it as much as possible.

And if more people were with me, I'd consider getting some tar, rails, and feathers.

3/22/2006 2:20:05 AM

^ dude you need to chill out and get a life

I really hope you have something better to do with your free time

3/22/2006 2:22:37 AM

Yes, I do. It's called drinking. One of the beauties of drinking is that I can participate in it concurrently with other activities, such as bitterly, bitterly hating our nonresponsive, incompetent, and at times outright criminal government.

[Edited on March 22, 2006 at 2:42 AM. Reason : so shut the fuck up]

3/22/2006 2:33:31 AM

** This was going into another thread: (http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=393391) but I felt it would be of most relevance here. The argument is appropriate, albeit long. **

To begin:

Quote :

"what useful things does student government actually do? when I was in college, I didn't see a whole lot, but then again, I didn't pay much attention to SG"

Ok, this comes from someone who voted originally not to consider the impeachment since it was so late in the year... so bear with me. This is list of what Student Government does that is useful:


Student Senate (Legislative):
Provide over 20 (50+ total appointments by SG) representatives to University Standing Committees. Ok? So what do they do?... Generally they’re committees made up of staff, faculty and administrators (once having little student input) dealing with things such as dining on campus, athletics (including tickets, tailgating, etc.), the bookstore, academic issues, class registration, physical environment (providing input into issues arising from current construction, upcoming building projects, green space such as the CoC, etc.), tuition, fees, university housing (policy, building renovations, evaluating budget and rent costs) and others. All of these committees are the groups responsible for advising the Chancellor on their respective issues. Generally, having at least one representative who is a student on each is important (as otherwise there would be no student voice at these meetings where the decisions would be made) and it is the job of the Executive Branch to appoint students outside of SG to serve, which they do (although many seats are still open... contact me if you’re interested in filling one and/or finding what’s open). So, what has come of it... what real impact has been made? I can’t speak for other committees because I am not in contact with everyone (this is a MAJOR role of the SBP to take up to stay informed) but for mine (dining) due to the input of students sitting on that committee we’re looking at a time range of about a year before some sort of real food shows up on Centennial Campus instead of 5-7 as the other faculty/staff/admin representatives were planning. They didn’t feel it was such an important issue until students voiced up, and it took some convincing. With the fees committee, our impact lowered the amount you’ll have to be paying for next year (unfortunately not as much as it could have been because debate on individual fees were banned by Dr. Stafford... one of the reasons we don’t care for him because he stifled DEBATE AND DISCUSSION on what WE will be paying for). But essentially, this role the Student Senate takes on makes many small meaningful changes that aren’t noticed often and is useful/important.

Deciding ticket distribution policy and penalties. Although a task force initially set it up (Lee Hyde provided some student input during this stage), we get to decide (in the Campus Community Committee) how it is run. The administration in Athletics respects us and our decisions on how student tickets will be distributed and they do what they can to put our system into action even if their system sucks (athletics is looking to possibly scrap the whole online model for another online model next year it’s so bad).

Campout. It’s a program many people like and students in the Student Senate like putting on. Although the administration puts limits on how many can come, the best is made of it.

Appropriations for student organizations. Students paid this year about $85,000 into SG that was disbursed out to their organizations. With about 300 requests coming in each year, the Senate provides a group of about 8-12 students who sit around at least 40 hours each semester holding hearings, reading requests, doing appeals and seeing to it that money is distributed to make the largest impact on-campus. With failures last year, this year the Senate has put more checks/balances in the process and thus far has made a LOT more groups pleased (although not all) with how we now run it. This is a major source of funds on campus, just as the UAB and IRC to an extent; especially for groups starting-up or wanting to do new programs. And despite some press, it is quite an efficient process compared to other organizations on campus, as we don’t waste a lot of time with it.

Political advocacy to groups such as the Board of Trustees, Board of Governors, NC General Assembly and US Congress. Although sometimes our contributions alone will not tip the decisions politicians make in our favor, we contribute on a state and national level with other students to advocate on issues such as maintaining financial aid (Pell Grants, low loan interest rates, sufficient borrowing amounts), keeping the government contributions to higher ed high (NC puts a LOT into your tuition and the institution... we do our part to encourage it) and things such as regulations, the “Academic Bill of Rights” being one as it is of interest across the country. How does this affect students here? I feel it is useful and important to keep our leaders in government informed about what is important to the general student at NCSU. If we can convince someone on Capitol Hill to think twice about decreasing the amount of financial aid available to students, especially on well divided issues where a republican defecting or two matters, it can make a much larger difference. Also the BoT of our University decides small things such as visitation policy to residence halls... it’s helpful to have a student there or 20 in the case of tuition and fees (but we didn’t have a president this year who would stand up and take a bold stance).

Holding meetings to work with administrators. We touch the issues before the Technician does. Contrary to those in Student Affairs, administrators in the services and Academics are very respectful and cooperative, they want to listen to the suggestions we have to provide. The students in the Senate provides them. The meetings we hold are open and published online (soon to be published a LOT more than that) anyone can come and speak and listen to what the administrators have to say about their respective departments. Recently, the University Affairs committee we have in the Senate spoke to the University Architect and voiced concern regarding the new construction and the water main break by the bookstore... several days later the Technician publishes a story about it (The Mario Viewpoint). We talked about the free expression tunnel progress, and Centennial Campus. When transportation comes in, we speak with it’s leaders about what routes we need and what services we’re looking to have in the future (important when they meet for the new contract with TTA). In the Academics Committee we have discussed with faculty and administrators the General Education Requirements (GER), and Tuition and Fees with attempts fought by Dr. Stafford to stop us, we discussed each fee that would be increased for the upcoming year and developed opinions regarding each... ex. Should we pay $10+ towards the Carter-Finely renovation but loose seats? (NO) How about $5 towards transportation to continue the online tracking system and add more busses? (Yes) We say what we feel benefits us and is worth paying for and what isn’t, then voice those opinions to those administrators who make the decisions. We may not impact what goes towards Carter-Finely much due to politics, but transportation issues and student services we have much more “soft power” on and can provide influence. Is it useful? Absolutely.

Providing student services. What services? Back in the day it was creating the Student Legal Affairs office (now our Student Body Officers advise it), however we’ve been in a slump until this year but now some BIG projects have been pushed through. Did you know you’ll soon be able to get sandwich boards through SG to publicize for your student organizations? Subsidized large-format printing? Blue books during exam time... you WILL hear more about it soon. And no more will be this crap with Red Terror Transit not being publicized enough, or people no longer knowing about campus-wide votes. Both of those problems have little excuse to ever happen again. In addition to this, we’re looking at re-fitting the SORC office with new equipment. This was a project led by the Student Senate alongside the UAB and the Inter-Residence Council. If all goes as planned, every group across campus next year will get amounts of free print quota and colored paper to advertise the events they hold, staple guns and staples to use, an extra projector to rent for presentations and general use, among other things. Think a free mini-kinkos in campus specifically for student groups. Useful? You bet.


Executive Branch (Whil’s Office):

Red Terror Transit. It’s not helpful for everyone since it is isolated to on-campus, but does help the 8,000 students who do live on campus, or those who can’t get a parking permit for the game. Although it failed this year, whoever gets in next year as SBP will make it better and likely it will run for both football and basketball. This is a helpful and useful service SG provides to get to/from Wolfpack home games.

[Edited on March 22, 2006 at 3:05 AM. Reason : formatting]

3/22/2006 3:01:54 AM

^

UNCASG representation. The SBP, in addition to his delegates, represents us to the leaders of the UNC System though the Association of Student Governments. The president of UNCASG has a seat on the Board of Governors and hopefully in the future will get a vote as well. Although they can’t move mountains, they do provide leadership convincing those in the BoG and the General Assembly to keep tuition low and state funding high. Plus, we share the cost of running them, $1 per full time student, which is a benefit. The role the BoG provides guiding our BoT is a large one, so I would say this is a important and useful benefit that SG provides.

Commissions. Hillsborough Street Commission, Nightwalk Commission, Feed Raleigh Commission... those are the most active of those this year. All provide programming and events throughout the year. The most notable has been the canned food drive the F.R.C. ran incorporating all of the ACC schools in North Carolina – it was a great success. On the important side, I guess it is, but for the usefulness, the Nightwalk Commission once a semester does a “Nightwalk” identifying potentially dangerous and poorly lit locations on campus, pointing them out in a detailed report we provide to Facilities, then do a re-walk holding the Facilities Department and Campus Police both responsible to fix them all. They both listen to us and do well to fix the many dozens of things we note as problems... putting up blue lights, performing repairs to areas, etc. Useful, surely.


Judicial Branch:
Largely independent, but we do pay for an office manager and the top officials in the branch with the Student Government fees. If you are ever in a hearing with the J-Board for academic integrity or any one of many types of non-academic cases they hear, they ensure everything is set up for you, that you’re well informed about the process, prepared for the hearings, etc. The office manager does double duty for the rest of SG, but this is a major role of hers. This may be important in the whole process of weeding out those determined to cheat their way through NC State, maintaining the prestige of your degree, but not particularly useful unless you’re involved in a case. The Student Chief Justice also serves as the top advocate to Student Conduct on many issues because he/she and Paul Cousins are in contact very often since they work with each other.

^ These are the highlights and I hope that I’ve made the point that some of what Student Government does is important and useful in addition to the myriad of sources that seem to all indicate otherwise. If you disagree and feel that the Senate should still be dissolved and SG would be best if non-existent, then I don’t feel I have much more to offer to convince you otherwise.

On a final note what is the cost?
The Student Government fee for those with a full-time course load is $8.85.

To put it in perspective to other services:
Student Legal is $9.00.
UAB is $10.80.
Media is $16.50.
Campus Recreation (not including Carmichael Gym) is $69.60.
Student Health is $221.00 (including fee paid to cover the building).

[Edited on March 22, 2006 at 3:06 AM. Reason : formatting]

3/22/2006 3:02:20 AM

but I use those, except UAB

3/22/2006 3:05:41 AM

Quote :

"but I use those, except UAB"

A full listing is here:
http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/cashier/Tuition/explanation.asp

SG is worth what everyone pays in, more so if it is as effective as it should be. Although seeing an impeachment of Whil is an easy issue to lock onto as one thing that is not very effective we are doing, there is MUCH more that we are doing that is the opposite, or made a genuine effort to do this year in order to make every bit of the fee everyone pays worthwhile. There are complex issues we deal with all the time regarding things most students don't care about, but are important... like what goes into your Education and Technology Fee (ETF) you pay of $350.00 every year. It seems to be going up year after year and is filled with "pork" so to say from each college department on campus (much more so than other fees). The only reason it didn't balloon this year? The WebAssign fee of $10.00 was taken out of it. If it wasn't our representatives looking at the fee, no student would before it's approved.

Also our fights with admins aren't baseless or just outright stupid (although we do a pretty good job making them look that way because we don't explain ourselves and our actions enough). Did you know earlier this year Dr. Stafford told his staff DO NOT ATTEND the Student Senate meeting on student fees as they have done for years past to discuss the changes being made to the fees for their respective areas (Athletics, Carmichael Gym, Student Centers, Transportation etc.)? Because of that (after his attempt to call the fire marshal to shut down the meeting for "safety" reasons by conveniently measuring size of the room incorrectly the same day) one of our, if not our most attended meeting of the year (by non-SG students especially) was filled with a lot of (but not ALL) uninformed discussion regarding each of the increases. Dr. Stafford expected us to be prepared only with the one page “fee summary” he provided (setting us up for failure)... although behind his back our Tuition and Fees committee collected “brief explanations” from each department with a fee change that amounted to a total 17 pages as they submitted it. We’re not stupid people I assure you, and are perfectly capable of having a civilized discussion with each department instead of an opportune admin takeover and a pat on the head assuring us everything is kosher. I can elaborate further on it and what happened, as this is quite a quick summary of the incident.

Another point I hope you will be open to is that the administration is not just stepping in to stop us breaking off the Judicial Branch or impeaching Whil, but has been throwing shit at us all year and discounting our opinions. SG may not DO much that's visible but the Senate does as a main role hold the administration accountable on the important things... particularly how much they charge us each semester and what for.

If you think having a student voice on what you pay each year is important, who else do you feel is going to provide it? It is not feasible for the Student Body President to go over each fee with a fine tooth comb, he does need help and it is the Student Senate’s job to do it – it is something we do pretty well and is looking to become better at in the future. We can’t when the administration decides the Student Senate shouldn’t have a role anymore and we certainly will not maintain oversight if there isn’t a Student Government to do so.

Quote :

"a bunch of nerdy overachivers trying to pad their resumes and have their egos fellated"

Do you really think these are the true motives behind the of the majority of the Senate or Student Government? I think those who you are talking about may tend to stand out more than others... but there is 60+ people in the Senate and nearly 100 in Student Government as a whole. Especially for the people in Student Government who don't have public roles, but do program planning like Nightwalk, do you really feel this is the case? How about those doing Community Service projects in SG? I think if those who excel there truly deserve praise and not all this animosity.

There are plenty in SG really trying to make a difference, and not just for the sake of “making a difference.” Student Government is a vehicle to make differences around campus for many reasons... that is the why some are in it and the reason why I am as well (although I’m leaving this spring to go to the Inter-Residence Council).


Please, look at all sides of the issues related to Student Government before falling into the mood for rebellion... I understand the side I'm coming from doesn't talk as often as it should, but please know it's there and is not as stupid and misguided as one may be left to believe.

[Edited on March 22, 2006 at 4:11 AM. Reason : grammar]

3/22/2006 4:10:10 AM

^
I've said this before and I"ll say it again ... you guys need to work more with The Technician to get some positive publicity out about what you do. Thanks for those long posts ... some of us do read it and are interested by it. I wish there was a Technician article which did the same thing.

3/22/2006 5:16:34 AM

Quote :

"I've said this before and I"ll say it again ... you guys need to work more with The Technician to get some positive publicity out about what you do. Thanks for those long posts ... some of us do read it and are interested by it. I wish there was a Technician article which did the same thing."

Thanks btw. Student Government has done a few things from last year, but none really seem to change the general public opinion.

Greg Doucette, a viewpoint writer, frequently comes to Senate meetings and stays involved so he writes a lot of the more informed articles which show up (since he knows more of the internals of what is going on). Hayley Gula, a writer for the Technician and also a Student Senator (Chair of Appropriations Cmte.) is our Press Secretary and puts out a press release after each meeting, so about every other week. It goes over the listserv and to each of the groups in Student Media... but it is more of a summary of what happened instead of a detailed explanation of what goes on (very hard to do without a bias in one way or another).

We do invite Technician reporters to our meetings and they frequently come and stay for at least half of each in most cases, as well as some of the “juicy” committee meetings such as when we had vouchergate or Whil’s impeachment come up. Recently they have been making much more of an effort to grab the leaders and take them aside for interviews over just hearing the bickering on the issues as we have most nights and leaving without knowledge of a lot of what is underneath, which is great.


I’ll sit down with Forrest tonight and work to generate a few more effective things we can do to get the Technician more tied in all the details and arguments of what is going on within SG and why. I don’t doubt at all we could be doing more.

3/22/2006 5:47:33 AM

Quote :

"student senate is worthless"

3/22/2006 6:27:29 AM

The biggest thing that pissed me off about SG is finding out WHAT issues were being dealt with and WHAT you were doing about them WITHOUT having to read 20 pages.

You guys should set up a quick list of issues people can scan through and click on the link on your website to see "What's the issue" then along with them "possible solutions" or when a solution is chosen is replaces the "possible solutions".

Students are overwhelmed with school. Adding in government usually is too much for them to care. (I'm talking about the majority here). If you make it quick and easily accessible they will become more involved.

When i waws in school (graduated 2002), the SG had a good rep for getting things done. people were confident that they would stop bad changes. Somewhere during that time and after that rep was lost and people grew frustrated.

Right now the powers of the SG are not enough honestly. I understand the need for increased fees in some areas but generally it's not $100 a semester. With 30,000 students (fulltime and parttime) increasing the fees like that is unacceptable. Since I left fees have gone up like $400. (I'm probably being cheap on that). I mean they have the nerve to put a webassign fee? WTF. I mean seriously.

You should work with technician hardcore trying to promote what you are successful doing or when you REAAAAAALY need student support. Get Front page posts with only the most important issues. Have a little box on the front page which tells students what issues you are dealing with this week. The technician should have trouble giving up a 2x2 box space.

3/22/2006 7:09:43 AM

Pssst...here's a secret: They don't really want student interaction.

3/22/2006 9:51:13 AM

haha i used to care about this shit back in the day

3/22/2006 10:04:37 AM

^^
Not likely, in most cases they're actually desperate for student interaction. Since pretty much all student governments anywhere have no tangible authority, the student interaction is what gives any SG its influence with administrators.

The issue here is more "rational ignorance" on the part of students. Everyone's here (hopefully) to 1) get a degree and 2) have a good time in the process. There's no incentive for academic- or partying-focused students to care about Student Government, even if it had tremendous power. Just look at "real world" voter turnout for US Congress races, especially during "off-year" elections: Congressmen have tremendous power, but generally no more than 15% of the population gives a shit -- and for good reason (we have more important things to do in the day).

Besides, GrumpyGOP might be able to multitask...but most of us prefer to drink without trying to do something serious at the same time


[Edited on March 22, 2006 at 10:08 AM. Reason : ---]

3/22/2006 10:06:47 AM

Quote :

"Student Legal is $9.00. "

thats what pisses me off. i paid that fee for like 5 years and never fucking knew about it. jesus, fuck nc state.

3/22/2006 10:11:43 AM

someone didnt look through there student handbook.

3/22/2006 10:13:26 AM

i never got one. you would think with all those fees theyd mail you one or something

3/22/2006 10:16:51 AM

Quote :

"after his attempt to call the fire marshal to shut down the meeting for "safety" reasons by conveniently measuring size of the room incorrectly the same day"

I make no disquises about past differences with Student Senate, but I think I've done a damn good job of staying out of it this year. However, there is one thing that I want to clear up. You should know that Tom Stafford was not the person to call the fire marshall---it was in fact a student, and I know the person. So, when Forrest, Tracy and Matt made a statement blaming Stafford in the Technician, they effectively destroyed all hope of the administration listening to Student Senate for the year.

I respect the fact that SG has potential, but with 64 different views on how to reach that, along with a SBP that very few were willing to work with, there is never unity on the approach. One thing you all must never do again is be bullheaded in your approach with the Administration. You must work within the system. There are many ways to change things, and there was a simple way to avoid the entire tuition increase, but no one bothered soliciting the help of ASG or even working with the Admin, they simply picked an arbitrary number and did the Chained by Tuition Campaign. Great campaign, but you had already lost your voice by that time.

From working with the 15 other student governments from the UNC System, I can honestly say the infighting is not just something that happens here. However, our Student Senate does more internal regulation than any other legislative body in the state, and spends more time in a meeting than any other. Most of the other schools have younger SGs, but somehow they find a way to conduct business efficiently, and present a unified message.

I have offered my help to multiple members of SS this year, since I have a much stronger connection in the state and with our Administration (otherwise I would never have been trusted with Football ticket distribution by the admin). However, my offers have gone without response, and my requests, which you are working on (Thanks Joe), have produced little result.

There is this perception that the best thing to do next year is to prevent the Administration from overreaching and to stop them. How, pray tell, does anyone expect to do that? The best people for next year are people who will be willing to sit down and respectfully discuss and resolve the issues. If the next SSP and SBP are not willing to come to terms with the fact that their power is only as great as it is allowed by the Administration, they are destined for failure. If they realize how to peacefully respect the estabilishment and find the necessary loopholes and routes to accomplish their goals, they will be some of the most successful people ever.

I hope we get the latter, but we'll see. Here's hoping for a better year--but Lord knows I've said that before.

Thanks for the work you do Joe, because I know you are one of the few that can act rationally and that you actually care about the students. But the reality is that the selfish members of SS, out for their own legacy, are the ones that are more vocal to the student body--I just hope they move on, and let progress take hold.

3/22/2006 10:52:56 AM

I've never cared for or about politics, and since I'm going to be done in May anyway I don't consider the problems of SBG to be my problems. That may sound selfish to many, but really is not my problem.

3/22/2006 11:06:13 AM

I sort of have the same feeling. But lots of infighting and blunders reflects poorly on the school. If they can't be removed, I want people who will work on issues outside of that bureaucracy. Cody’s Hillsborough stuff, turning it more into a college town road feel, is something that I could enjoy even after I’ve graduated, a lot more than a student discount at Bojangles.

http://cody.wolfpacklife.com/

3/22/2006 11:10:28 AM

Quote :

" You guys should set up a quick list of issues people can scan through and click on the link on your website..."

We have the basics here. It’s off of students.ncsu.edu by clicking the students link at the top, then one of:
Student Government Overview
Issues and Programs
Contacting Student Government
Frequently Asked Questions
Getting Involved
Governing Documents

However it is not possible to deal with many issues without going through 20 pages. The WebAssign fee is one example. It’s not just $10 extra being charged to pull in more revenue as normally fees come about, instead it was a requirement from one of the Assistant Attorney Generals under the NC Government that the University can no longer use state-appropriated funds for certain technology... including the clickers in many classes among other things. Those in Chemistry are wondering why they have to pay for them now. Instead of our University fighting back, they took the easy way out and decided they’d just charge a fee instead of trying to get the Attorney General to overturn his official’s decision... thus it was moved from ETF to a separate expense paid largely by the Engineering and PAMS students. It is a bit more “fair” now... the CHASS and other students pay for other majors a lot because it’s cheap for the University to award a English major a degree compared to a Biomedical Engineering or Biochemistry major due to a number of factors. – The Senate held at the time a forum and I believe it was publicized in the Technician when we called in the administrators involved and the chief liaison between NCSU and WebAssign. There was even discussion of seeking grants among other things to save cost within the company (as one accounting Student Senator brought up... unfortunately he graduated before anything could be put into action on his ideas). But you get my point... explaining any issue in the detail it deserves makes one seem longwinded (even if it is the case at times).

If you’re interested in the WebAssign fee there is two big ways one can get involved:
- Serve on the ETF advisory committee (a large time commitment but would be a service to everyone looking over proposals to the fee and keeping the Student Body President informed next year on issues that arise). By serving as a member the next “WebAssign” fee could potentially be headed off, or a equivalent increase the next year in the ETF to “fill the gap” – this is not something far-fetched as it could happen anytime as the state re-evaluates its interpretations of the policy it has set for spending by the UNC System institutions.
- Work with WebAssign (a company owned by people at the University but separate) on how the service can be made more affordable. Cutting costs there would cut it for everyone as the administration at the company is trying to provide it to NC State at a special price... the reason why it dropped from $10 down to $8ish was partly due to that. Plus they aren’t a large company at all and are willing to take all the help they can get, provided no cost attached. They’re located on Centennial Campus.
- Encourage students to challenge their professors and deans to have everyone in the department/college use WebAssign effectively. Like a textbook, if your professor is wasting time with it and you’d much rather have paper assignments, everyone needs to understand it can be requested and is not something set in stone. It is a choice on the professor to use WebAssign over another medium... sometimes it makes sense preventing the cost of extra TAs, but as I’ve heard with some Education and Management classes, it’s pretty much a waste to use over cheaper options. If enough people make those points, especially for particular classes, it can save those enrolled a considerable chunk of money each semester.

Contact me with questions if you have any: jmsevits@ncsu.edu

Quote :

" You should work with technician hardcore trying to promote what you are successful doing or when you REAAAAAALY need student support. Get Front page posts with only the most important issues. Have a little box on the front page which tells students what issues you are dealing with this week. The technician should have trouble giving up a 2x2 box space. "

Can you believe the Technician charged Student Government about $180.00 for putting an ad for Fall Elections in the paper (the one to encourage freshmen to vote)? I’ll ask them if they can do something like that for us... it is always worth a shot. And I know we could fill it, however being unbiased will be very hard as there is many sides and many stances people take in SG on particular issues. This year I was frustrated that we didn’t have any way to publicize things well... Elections, Red Terror Transit, Committee Meetings (where we’re dealing with important things... ticket policy, student fees, tuition rates, holding forums on big issues, etc.). So SG is getting sandwich boards to sit all around campus when these things come up, and for the 80-90% off-time signing them all out to student organizations to use to publicize their programs. Other ideas to get out info was to hand out information with free items like bluebooks (this will happen) or with parking permits to football games. Unfortunately my ideas were shot down last year (to hand out info with vouchers) and I’m still stale about it, but this year things have went nicely towards building some sort of publicity into what Student Government does on a daily basis. Hopefully too, you can check the SG kiosk in the brickyard (we have one... under the big tree near the Wolf-ears) for updates... fixing it up is my pet project for next month since I got funding.

Quote :

" Pssst...here's a secret: They don't really want student interaction. "

I can say most have become used to working without it at times, but if someone said “Hey, could I be on your legislative staff?” To any of these upcoming Student Senators for next year, I’d be quite surprised to see one turn you down. If you want to help SG do something, even if you have a project of your own you’d like to see taken on, just approach someone like the Student Body President and they can help you get the funding and support to make what you want to see happen a reality (unless it is some really crazy or unethical idea).

Student Government as a whole has a large pocket to spend from every year, so if you want to do something like what the Senior Class Council is trying to do this spring; putting on a concert alongside the Hillsborough Street Hike; then go for it!

Quote :

" i never got one. you would think with all those fees theyd mail you one or something "

^ Bad news… you pay another fee for the student handbook too. Fortunately, it will be going away for next year.


In relation to getting the sides out on the issues Student Government deals with, what do you all think about a message board or possibly encouraging people to use TWW to address these things? Strangely enough, not many people in SG now are on TWW, but I can see it happening in the future. -- Soap Box threads for each bill to get some real feedback???

3/22/2006 12:02:56 PM

THE TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE WATERED WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS!

STRIKE AT THE ROOT!

ET. AL

3/22/2006 12:07:09 PM

^^
please don't pollute TSB with SG stuff, we've already got salisburyboy, Gamecat and DirtyGreek

[Edited on March 22, 2006 at 12:29 PM. Reason : j/k guys, you know I love your TSB threads ]

3/22/2006 12:27:59 PM

damn, he totally grouped me and gamecat with salisburyboy

3/22/2006 1:08:08 PM

only because I group you with Gamecat, and for the last 2 weeks Gamecat has matched salisburyboy in terms of new thread count...I assure you it was all logical reasoning

3/22/2006 1:15:51 PM