Student Affairs Committee Report

Intended for the November 27, 2006 University Senate meeting (but time ran out)

submitted by Ms. Kathleen McGeever

Student Affairs Committee met on November 3, 2006.  We had the following guests in attendance Rebecca Miles and Eve Puckett.

I.          OLD BUSINESS

A.        ACTIVITIES:  Eve presented information to the Committee regarding the current Activities program for the Living Learning Communities and Residence halls. She explained how they encouraged student attendance at both social and cultural events on the GCSU campus. Ms. Puckett indicated that the program is very successful in getting residence hall students to explore campus activities. She also pointed out that there is a group in Mycats called “event planners” that allows those planning events to see a single calendar with a listing of events including sports, social events, cultural activities, academic, etc.

    The information we gathered from Eve Puckett and our individual departments and schools led us to believe that many activities are required and/ or encouraged by faculty and other programs in particular the Residence Halls.  The departmental or course requirements vary by subject/ discipline and number of requirements.  Some “Tag in” on events that support their work and it would be nice to know ahead of time rather than planning at the last minute and it was suggested that faculty and event planners take advantage of the Mycats Event Planners.  SAC discussed how it would be more mission driven if we had greater participation across the classes (about 1420 students with 60 to 70 percent freshmen participate in the Residence Hall program).  John Fair presented a Cultural Attendance sheet that is used at his son’s university.  Students are required to attend so many events to graduate and the events are calculated through the forms.  It has been a success at his son’s institution.  The committee presents our findings to the Full Senate and is open to the Senate’s decision as to whether we should proceed further – we present our findings. 

B.         COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER: A report on the history of the distinguished service award was distributed as information to the committee with no discussion and no action on the report taken.  A draft of the commencement speaker survey was distributed for committee review.  We have reviewed the survey and it will be posted to a web based response system for students, faculty and staff.  We hope to have data to share to the full Senate by early spring.

II.        NEW BUSINESS

A.        EARLY REGISTRATION:  The committee was asked to investigate the issue regarding early registration and if there was a policy. After asking for guidance from ECUS on where to begin the research, SAC asked the question of Dr. Paul Jones.  Dr. Jones explained that there isn’t a written policy regarding early registration. There has been a long practice of providing early registration for special groups during the first day of registration. Early registration requests are approved by the Registration Task Force. Prior to the new governance structure requests were made to Academic Council. Currently the following groups have received early registration priority (427 students): Honor students, Students with disabilities, Athletes (including cheerleaders and dance team), Ambassadors, SGA Officers, Coverdell students, and student workers in Admissions and the Registrars Office. Unfortunately, two groups were approved by the former Registrar who did not realize that these requests needed to be forwarded to the Registration Task Force.

Dr. Jones was not endorsing the early registration process at GCSU, but pointed out that it is a very common practice in Georgia and across the country. For example, he stated that the following USG schools which provide early registration to special groups:

Augusta State - Honors, Disabilities, and Athletes

Southern Poly - Athletes, Ambassadors, Honors, Special Needs

West GA -         Athletes, Disabilities, Honors, Tour Guides, Debate Team, SGA

Gainesville -       Disabilities, Honors

Due to the fact that there is currently no known written policy guiding priority registration, SAC feels that, in the interest of transparency, this is an issue we wish to address and we will begin the process at our next meeting. 

B.         QUESTION ON POLICY

Since many members of SAC had to attend other meetings and our discussions of the commencement speaker and activities took the entire meeting, the question on what is policy presented to SAC by ECUS, was tabled until our January meeting.