Student Affairs Committee Report
Given to the University Senate 04-23-07
Submitted by Ms. Kathleen McGeever
We met on April 4, 2007 in the Museum Education room, our regular meeting space.
We looked at the draft of the annual report and offered edits. The edits have been sent to the committee for final approval and the report will be submitted by the end of the week.
We discussed new business that will be included on the report. Some of the items do not fit the new charge of the Student Affairs Policy Committee so in the report we made suggestions to the committees that we thought the issues belonged in.
In particular, we discussed Van issue: Of the 32 USG institutions polled by Richard Lou, 30 of them offered college/university vans for mission-centered field trips. Georgia College & State University and Southern Polytechnic State University do not offer vans. The SAC has suggested that the Resources, Planning, and Institutional Policy Committee (RPIPC) investigate why GCSU does not offer vans to the campus and whether or not the vans, which used to be available, could be offered again. Some departments currently rent vehicles from Enterprise when going on field trips; others, like Athletics and Kinesiology, have purchased vehicles for departmental use in the past.
Our committee spoke with Bryan Jackson about the universal cultural events calendar; he will investigate the campus’s options with Barbara Monnett. We emailed Mark Pelton to see if he might be able to attend a SAPC meeting next year and recommend that the Student Affairs Policy Committee (SAPC) investigate again whether R25 can be adapted to be more user-friendly.
The issue of student excuses from the health center was brought up. The issue that students are visiting Student Health Services to obtain a “sick note” to give to their professor; 75% of these students, she said, have no illness but are using the note to excuse the fact that they didn’t want to go to class. We suggested that the unethical abuse of the “sick note” may be an issue that can be addressed by the Academic Policy Committee (APC).
And finally, the issue of alcohol and student consumption was brought up. The current alcohol and wellness programs are not adequate for student needs and are not addressing alcohol and wellness issues on campus. This can be another issue for the SAPC in the coming year.