SA Meeting Minutes

By Rice Thresher Staff     10/28/13 7:00pm

The following were noted at the meeting of the Student Association on Oct. 28.

• SA President Yoonjin Min presented a list of nominees for the Blanket Tax Standing Committee for approval. The Student Senate confirmed the nominees.
• Duncan College sophomore Michael Donatti and Martel College sophomore Rachel Sterling presented a report about the Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching Working Group. The group's focus is on gathering information on teaching excellence at Rice and improving internal and external use of digital education. The group plans to meet with professors and gather student feedback and will introduce legislation to the Senate in January 2014 with specific recommendations for President David Leebron.
• SA Parliamentarian Brian Baran announced that the next two meetings of the Committee on Constitutional Revisions will examine the definition and regulation of blanket tax organizations as well as the process for blanket tax review. Baran said the committee will present a draft of its findings for student feedback at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11 in Farnsworth Pavilion. Send any input and questions to bbaran@rice.edu.
• Will Rice College freshman Hanna Downing and Lovett College freshman Brett Gutstein presented the current projects of the Academics Committee. The committee is working to examine possibilities for student-taught language classes, establish a petroleum engineering concentration for the chemical and biomolecular engineering major, and create  more courses specific to policy studies. The committee plans to look into creating several new minors, creating a business major and hiring new professors.
• Lovett College Senator Christian Neal gathered feedback about Rice's review of the graduate program in linguistics. Students expressed concerns on difficulty in attracting linguistics faculty, reduced availability of courses in related fields and the precedent this could set for cutting departments in the future. Send any feedback to ctn1@rice.edu.
• User Experience Librarian Debra Kolah introduced the Fondren Student Ambassadors Program. Kolah said a survey is available at library.rice.edu/feedback to gather student input for renovating the library study rooms.
• Campuswide Beer Bike Coordinators Christian Neal and Eric Baeuerle announced that the Rice Program Council is seeking area coordinators. Applications are available at rpc.rice.edu and are due Nov. 6 at 11:59 p.m.
• Min announced that nominations for Homecoming King and Queen are open until Nov. 8 at 11:59 p.m. The nomination form can be found at sa.rice.edu/homecoming.

 

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The SA will next meet Monday, Nov. 4 in the Duncan College Commons at 9 p.m. as the first of several experimental SA meetings to be held in north and south college commons.

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