Special Events Update

Hello All!

Things with the External Affairs committee have been going swimmingly! At last week’s meeting, we discussed possible Homecoming themes that we will be presenting to the University Homecoming Committee next spring. The themes are: What Happens in Boone, Stays in Boone (Vegas style), Go Green, and Rockstar.

We will be working on logos and other marketable aspects in the upcoming weeks. Community service projects such as a Hero’s lunch where ASU athletes go out and speak to local elementary and middle schools, a  Thanksgiving Meal Drive, and other events have been pursued. The Ambassador/SGA Challenge will be taking place on Reading Day, December 8th at 3pm on Sanford Mall. We are asking for donations of cans from participants and audience members. Cans earn points for the team they are donated toward and will be donated to the Hunger and Health Coalition.

Lauren Estes, Newland Senator, found out some interesting facts about the PART bus. As you may know, SGA is working to get a PART bus route to Charlotte. Apparently the PART bus that comes to Boone is operated by the NC Department of Transportation. The federal government declared Boone and isolated area when the Greyhound stopped coming here. The NC Department of Transportation put out bids to private transportation companies, asking them to start a bus system to Boone. None of the companies were interested, so the government approached PART. PART agreed, but said that it would only run a bus route to Boone if the government funded the route.

Today, the PART bus runs from Boone to the Piedmont area daily. Approximately 12% of the ASU student population is from this area. More than 18% is from the Charlotte Meck area. Thus, since significantly more students are from the Charlotte area, we feel it is important to initiate a bus route from Boone to this area. Legislation is in the works, but we are waiting for PART representatives to meet with CATS (Charlotte Area Transit System) representatives to discuss the the route.

Stay tuned!

Tuition and Fees Update

Hello Mountaineers,

The semester is quickly winding down. It seems like classes only started a few days ago and we are about to be on Thanksgiving break. I have some updates on things going on in SGA and within our university.

The University Tuition Committee voted on a 4.2% tuition increase. The breakdown of revenue from the tuition increase is
the following:

Financial Aid “hold Harmless:”
50%

Three Faculty Positions to support the Health Sciences Initiative:
14%

Other Academic and Student Support: *
36%

*Including:
-Web Librarian
-LAP Academic Advisors
-Assistive Technologist Specialist for Disability Services
-Academic Advisors for Health Sciences and Allied Professions
-Internship Coordinator for Health Sciences and Allied Professions
-Heltzer Honors Academic Advisor
-Counseling Center Counselor
-Financial Aid Counselors

The University Fee Committee has voted on their official recommendation for fee increases. Here is what the committee voted to do:

Athletics
Fee:  $10
Reasoning: To cover the cost of utilities for the new athletic complex

Health Services
Fee: $20
Reasoning:  To cover the cost of two psychologists who’s funding was cut by the state

Housing
Fee:  $200
Reasoning:  Only paid by those who live on-campus. Covers the cost for the demolition of Coffey and the construction of a new and much larger dorm

Book Rental
Fee:  $10
Reasoning:  The price of textbooks has increased and this fee increase offsets the rising cost of textbooks

Transportation
Fee:  $10
Reasoning:  Will fund the addition of Routes for the Green Route and the POP 105 Route

If there are any questions regarding tuition or fee increases please shoot me an e-mail or come by the offices. I will say that student representation on both of these committees was excellent. I stongly feel that these recommendations represent students needs on our campus and that the recommendations were made with affordability in mind.

Both recommendations have come in at well below the 6.5% cap set by the Board of Governors. The committee’s recommendations have been made to the Chancellor and he will make his recommendation to the Board of Trustees who will vote on their recommendation to the Board of Governors next Friday, December 4th.

Medical Amnesty is still a work in progress. I have a revised copy of the written policy several times and I now hope to gain some kind of endorsement from the Risk Management Committee and Safety Council soon. I will keep you all posted on its progress.

There is a lot going on within SGA and I hope that you will continue to check back to read other cabinet member’s blogs to see what we are all working on. Have a great Thanksgiving and travel safe! Don’t forget to come back to Boone for the playoff game on Saturday!

Sincerely,

Jonathan Meisner

Environmental Affairs Update

Hey Folks,

As you may have noticed, I am no longer the SGA Treasurer. I have hung my abacus and refuse to open any more spreadsheets. Now a days, my dealings are with the environment – recycling, renewable energy, conservation, education, and the whole kit and caboodle.

Recently, the Renewable Energy Initiative (REI) celebrated the accomplishment of installing the largest wind turbine in North Carolina that was purchased in part through the funds of the voluntary REI fee. With the completion of the wind turbine and a solar thermal system on top of Plemmons Student Union, the committee is continuing to suggest and work on new ideas for the implementation of renewable energy around campus.

In other news, I am continuing to work on Bring Your Own Cup (BYOC), a program that promotes reusing a single cup/mug for incentives of cheaper product. Jacob Nall drafted a rockin’ design that I’m excited about getting out there for use.

Finally, as Winter Break comes closer I’ll be working on an educational campaign discussing phantom energy. Phantom energy comes from appliances that are plugged in and draw electricity while in a sleep or off mode.

For any questions, concerns, or comments feel free to email me or stop by the office to talk.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving,

Andrew Edmonds

President responds to concerned student

Recently an ASU student wrote a letter to the editor concerning the accountability of the Appalachian State Student Government Association. You can view this letter here. We value the opinions and concerns of all students, and hope that they will continue to have their voices heard. This was one of our main goals on the campaign trail, and we are pleased to see that students are motivated to speak up about what they see at this university.

Jonathan Meisner wrote the following letter in response, in hopes to better explain the Tuition and Fees process, as well as clear up some incorrect figures given by the concerned student.

Dear Editor,

I am writing this week in response to Tuesday’s letter to the editor. Tuesday’s letter expressed two points of concern. The first was that this year’s recommended tuition increase from the University Tuition Committee was higher than last years. The second concern was that SGA was not following a piece of legislation written last year that set a timeline for the processes of the Tuition and Fee Committees.

To address the first concern, the Tuition Committee has recommended a 4.2% tuition increase. Last year the Tuition Committee proposed an increase of 5.2%, not 3.4% as stated by the author of the letter to the editor. You can read more about last year’s proposed increase by viewing the article in The Appalachian here.

I would also like to state that recommendations from the Tuition and Fee Committees are merely recommendations to the Chancellor. These recommendations may or may not be changed by Chancellor Peacock, and he then makes his recommendations to the Board of Trustees who in turn recommends their proposal to the Board of Governors. The committee’s proposal may or may not be what actually happens with tuition for the following year.

There are reasons for having tuition increases. I don’t think that it is news to anyone that there is currently a budget crisis within our state, meaning that our universities are receiving less money from the state. The only way to ensure that we have the means to ensure a quality education is to have a tuition increase. There is a 6.5% cap on tuition and I am pleased that our proposal does not “max out.”

The items that the tuition increase will be going towards are essential and important to students at Appalachian. Some of them include financial aid, faculty positions, and advisors, just to name a few. The items that the author expressed concern about were Learning Assistance Program (LAP) Advisors and Library Positions.

The LAP advisors currently exist, and need to continue to exist, to ensure that students have the help and guidance they need to graduate on time, which in turn will save students money. State funding was cut for these positions, and fees that go to Athletics had to be used to maintain these spots. The committee voted to move the positions back to state funding where it was originally. This was done in the form of a tuition increase.

If you think about it, if you do not return the positions to where they make the most sense (paid by tuition), then the Athletic fee will have to increase even more to offset the new cost. Students need those positions and they will have to be paid for by either tuition or fees.

Regarding the library positions, the committee voted to include only one of the three proposed library positions in their final recommendation. This library position is the Web Librarian who is responsible for maintaining the Library’s website and ensuring that students are easily able to navigate the website to find resources necessary to learning. There used to be a person in this position but the position became vacant, and when the budget cuts hit, no one on campus was allowed to fill empty positions. If this position remains empty, the web resources offered to students will be hurt.

The second concern was that SGA was not following a piece of legislation that set a timeline for the processes of the Tuition and Fee Committees. Appointments to these committees were made on time according to the legislation. The Fee Committee met in accordance with the legislation on Wednesday of the third full week in September. The Tuition Committee met in early October, which is about two weeks later than the legislation called for.

Reasoning for meeting later than the legislation stipulated was that UNC-System schools were awaiting direction for the tuition and fee processes from the Board of Governors. The state budget for the 2010-2011 year stipulates a $200 or 8% tuition increase (whichever is cheaper). This is something that a lot of students, administrators, and public officials are lobbying to remove from next year’s budget, as the universities will not receive any benefit from this “tax on students.”

This tuition increase caused universities to believe that they would not be allowed to have any campus-based tuition increases. Additionally, in late September of this year, when the legislation stated the Tuition Committee should convene, there were no requests from any departments for a tuition increase.

It is quite a task getting together a room full of busy administrators, faculty members, and students that all make up the Tuition Committee. Scheduling a meeting to talk about campus based tuition increases when none have yet been referred to the committee is simply inefficient. The entire reason and purpose for the legislation was to have enough time to communicate with students and get proper feedback that is necessary to be true representatives on these committees.

This year, the Fee Committee met a total of 6 times over 6 weeks and the Tuition Committee met 4 times over 5 weeks. In between each meeting I reported to Senate, wrote blog updates, gave information to the school paper and radio station, and this week hosted an open Tuition and Fee Forum where we had over 75 students attend, ask questions, and even fill out a survey voicing their thoughts on tuition and fees. We have had plenty of great feedback from students and there would not be any benefit of starting the Tuition Committee a week or two earlier.

I hope that this letter has been easy to understand and informative. If anyone has any questions or concerns about tuition and fees or anything else, I encourage you to send me an e-mail or stop by the SGA offices on the second floor of the Student Union.

Respectfully,

Jonathan Meisner
Student Body President
Appalachian State University

Rules Update

Hello everyone,

I hope registration is going well.  A few new updates from the Rules Committee: we have reviewed many pieces of legislation, from 043-001 to 043-007. All of these pieces have passed through Senate and are going to the President and then to administration. As of now, we will be reviewing the Constitution of our organization and some changes that are proposed by the Constitutional Revision Committee. This lengthy document will be the at the foremost of our agenda over the next two meetings. If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to add your input, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thank you,

Eric Holm

Academic Affairs Update

Hello everyone,

Things have been going extremely well for Academic Affairs.  We were able to pass our evergreen piece of legislation, something we are very proud of.  This has been extremely well received by the Appalachian community.  In fact, a Trustee of Appalachian has donated $15,000 to help the school work towards accomplishing this goal.  We are extremely thankful and excited, and we hope it will have a beneficial impact on our students.

Next, the budget for the library was approved.  This means that we are quickly moving forward with our 24/5 library hours.  This will be done for certain before November is through, but we are trying our hardest to have all the details sorted out so we can start sooner rather than later in the month.

Recently in senate, the body passed bill 043-003 which was a resolution of support for Appalachian acquiring and implementing a degree audit system.  This is a great step for the student body.  Working to bring a degree audit to our campus is something that will benefit many Appalachian students for years to come once the system is in place.

I have also still been busy with committee work as well.  We have had the second meetings for both AP&P and the General Education Council.  At AP&P we have started to use a new CurricUNET software program to assist us with streamlining and improving our curriculum approval process.  This will allow us to decrease the amount of paper copies we use a great by electronically submitting and approving courses and programs, by the appropriate bodies, within the system.

Appalachian SGA will also be hosting the November meeting for UNCASG on Nov. 20-22.  This will be another great opportunity for us to showcase the unique and great experience we have all worked to develop as part of the Appalachian community.
Please contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas.

Black and Gold, Go Apps,
PA Rowe

Tailgating Statistics

Hey Folks,

So far our Mountaineer football team is off to a great start. With the recent wins over Georgia Southern and Furman University, our Mountaineers are sitting pretty at No. 7 in the FCS.  Unfortunately, the regular season’s ending is coming around the bend as we only have two more home regular season games. This means only two more chances to tailgate before our Mountaineers face-off against Chattanooga this weekend and Western Carolina, November 21^st.

In order to apply for tailgating you can log onto the SGA website at www.sga.appstate.edu. The application period is open from the Sunday prior to the game to the same Wednesday at Noon. Winners of the lottery will be systematically and automatically selected and posted on the website by 5 PM on Wednesday.

The past four games, we’ve received an average of 780 entries into the lottery system for an available 272 tailgating spots. Our peak week for the tailgating system was 998 entries for the Homecoming game against North Carolina Central.

Winners may pick up passes on Thursday from 8 AM – 6 PM and Friday from 8 AM – Noon. Students may choose any lot and number they wish. Spots are distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Any tailgating spots that are not picked up Noon on Friday will become available for anyone to pick up with an appropriate AppCard.

For further detail, feel free to refer to the policy and procedures posted on the SGA website or contact me.

Good luck to those of you who enter the lottery system and GO APPS!

From the VP Desk

Hey everybody,

It has been a while since I wrote my last blog, but I just wanted to update you on what I have been doing lately.

As VP, I facilitate Senate every Tuesday at 6:30 PM.  In the past few weeks we have had special guests come to talk with us about things that are occurring around our campus.  Some special guests we have had this year include, Chancellor Peacock, Vice Chancellor Cindy Wallace, Student Conduct Director Judy Haas, Off-Campus Relations Coordinator Kendal McDevitt, and Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, David Haney.

We have other guests coming this year such as Athletic Director Charlie Cobb, members of the Renewable Energy Initiative, and Coordinator of the Student Wellness Center, Jessica M. Gillaspy.  Not only does this allow for students to hear from the special guests, it allows for us to ask questions to these administrators regarding various initiatives we are researching in SGA.

We also passed our first piece of legislation, the Evergreen Act, in Senate on Tuesday.  This piece of legislation was in support of planting Evergreens on our campus to make a more beautiful campus during the winter months.  As a piece of support it does not state where exactly we want the evergreens, or how much should be spent on them.  We are not experts on this topic and therefore are stating that we wish for the Physical Plant here at Appalachian to look into placing evergreens on our campus by reallocating money they already use to plant trees, plants, and other shrubbery throughout the year.

We have two more pieces of legislation coming to Senate next week.  One piece of legislation sets the dates for SGA President and Vice President elections next semester and the other is to support a degree audit system here at Appalachian.  Both of these pieces of legislation will be presented and voted on next Tuesday, the 3^rd, at 6:30 pm in the Linville Falls room of the Student Union (2^nd floor across from the computer lab on the side next to the amphitheater).

In addition to my duties for senate, I am also on a few University committees as a student representative.  The University committees I sit on include: Athletic Council where I sit on the Gender Equity subcommittee, Tuition committee, and Fee committee.  In these committees, I act as a voice for the students and make sure that in decisions made by these committees, student opinions are being heard.  If you are interested in what is happening in these committees I would be happy to fill you in (it would take a lot of blog space to tell you everything that is going on involving these committees!)  Please feel free to stop by the SGA office anytime to speak with me.

However, I do want to tell you that student opinion is extremely important in these committees.  SGA is going to hold a forum November 17^th at the same time and location Senate is held (Linville falls room of the Student Union at 6:30 pm). This forum will be used to inform students about the proposed fee increases that would take place next year.  We want to make sure students are heard and that they are part of the decision making involving their fees.

And lastly, I want to let you know that we have 72 senators as of October 28 at 12:30 pm.  We still have 5 seats open and if you interested in becoming a senator please call, e-mail, or come by the SGA office which is on the second floor of the student union by the CSIL office and McAllister’s.  As a senator you will be involved in the changes that are taking place on campus and you will have a chance to research and create the change you want to see here.

This was a lengthy blog but I just wanted you all to know what I have been up to.  Thanks for reading and if you have any ideas, comments, concerns, questions, etc. please do not hesitate to ask me or come by the office.

Thanks again,

Michele

Presidential Update

Hello Mountaineers!There has been a lot going on around campus and in our state and I wanted to let you all know what all that entails. I gave a short speech in Senate this past Tuesday to inform senators of some of the most pressing issues for students today. I wanted to post much of that speech on this blog so that you can all be informed as well.

At the state level

This past weekend, I traveled to Durham along with Michele Armstrong, Brian Harbour, and Andrew Edmonds to participate in the monthly ASG meeting. ASG stands for association of student governments and is made up of delegates from each of the 17 UNC –system schools. ASG meets at a different campus each month and exists for student governments to share ideas and initiatives as well as be a representative student body to the board of governors.

There were three pieces of legislation passed this past weekend.

1. The first was a piece that called for the North Carolina School for Science and Math to have Ex-Officio Status on their board of trustees.
2. The second requested that the UNC general administration investigate the impact of graduation rates of the increased taxation on students exceeding 140 credit hours.
3. The last piece of legislation contained some alterations of statutes.

The next ASG meeting will be hosted here at Appalachian on November 20^th and 21^st.

On campus

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the Tuition and Fees Committee has begun to meet.

The second tuition committee will take place this Friday. At this time there is no request for a rise in tuition, but there may be a request on Friday. I will continue to report to the Student Senate and you all with updates.

Last Thursday at our second Fee Committee meeting we heard the first set of presentations from REI, Cultural Affairs, and Athletics.

REI presented but did not have a fee increase request but are discussing amongst themselves the possibility of raising the fee in the spring referendum. This means that all students may have the opportunity to vote in the spring on appalnet to either raise the fee, maintain it, or eliminate it.

Cultural Affairs is requesting an $8 fee increase. The representative indicated that that this fee increase would help assist them in integrating their programs and facilities into academics.

Athletics is requesting a $15 fee increase. Mr. Charlie Cobb expressed that about $5 would go towards paying for the utilities bill of the new athletic facility and about $10 would help fund student scholarships in case out of state athletes no longer receive in state tuition prices as they currently do. Currently, out of state athletes receive in state tuition prices but that is something that the state of North Carolina is considering to revise.

For the next few weeks, the fee committee will be hearing presentations from different areas. I will be reporting to you and others on what is presented and I hope that you will share this information with everyone you know and provide me feedback on what you and others think so that my vote is a true representative of the student voice. The fee committee will vote on November 19^th and pass our recommendation onto the Chancellor. On Tuesday, November 17^th at 6:30pm we will host a Tuition and Fees forum open to all students.

Our Campus is currently undergoing a Provost Search. At the last search committee meeting, we selected the search firm Issacson Miller. You have all received a general e-mail about how important this position is to our campus and about the open forum for receiving input. I ask that you please plan to attend the forum on Thursday, November 5 in Attic Window Room of the student union from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. If you have any questions about the process or anything at all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

The last piece of information that I wanted to share was concerning our universities budget. After months of waiting, we finally have received our certified budget. The budget includes the money that will be used to fund our library to be opened 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. P.A. Rowe is working with the Library to ensure that they move forward to open the library 24-5 as soon as possible. This has been a SGA initiative for years and I would like to thank all those who have put in the time and hard work over the past several years to make this happen.

Internally, I am proud to announce that Michele and I have appointed a new Treasurer. Jake Campos will be serving the student body as the new treasurer and I am confident in his abilities and passion to fulfill his new role.

As always, please come by the office, shoot me an e-mail, or call me up for any questions, comments, or concerns. I am here to serve you so please provide me with feedback.

Faithfully,

Jonathan

Homecoming!