By Dan Durand
SG Beat Reporter
As spring semester comes to a close and student organizations around campus grind their activities to a halt, senior Student Government president Scott Plumridge and his executive staff prepare to step down from their respective positions.
In the course of two semesters, SG passed 71 bills, most dealing with Judicial Reform, charter organizations and constructing avenues for student communication. Members of SG seemed content with both their organization's integrity and the perception of the student body.
"I think that SG's image on campus has improved tremendously," junior Jhn Giokas, a co-chairman of the academics commitee, said. "Mostly, this has been due to effective leadership; Scott, Tina (Carlucci), Ryan (Marsh) and Jonathan (Perry) deserve all the credit in the world."
After numerous meetings with faculty and students, including a student referendum, SG passed 26 bills last week outlining changes to the campus judicial system. Close to 80 percent of the voting student body expressed its support of these changes in the March 24 student referendum.
"We were very excited to pass this legislation, which has garnered unprecedented support from the student body," Plumridge said.
SG hopes its efforts will result in an invigorated spirit of honor at the university. Beginning next fall, the new system was designed to ameliorate concerns expressed by both students and faculty. A product of and for the university, the new system continued to gain support, as the final statutes passed with a 92 percent vote April 14 during executive committee run-offs.
"Most of the people I know are extremely excited about the new system," said freshman Jon Dowling, who was recently appointed to the Board of Investigators and Advisers.
In addition to Judicial Reform, this year SG set the same standards for itself that were established for Honor and Ethics Council and BIA members. Candidates for SG executive positions, and those for the HEC and BIA, will be pre-screened for honor and judicial violations. Any candidate with honor violations will be barred from the ballot, while those with judicial violations will be evaluated by the Judicial Elections Committee on a case-by-case basis. A minimum university GPA of 2.0 was also instituted as a prerequisite for higher office.
The election process for HEC candidates was designed in a way to foster a door-to-door campaigning process. Reform statutes will force HEC candidates to campaign by familiarizing their constituency with their personal concept of honor. Name recognition devices such as banners will be illegal under these statutes.
"Students will choose the (HEC) candidates based on their sense of morality, not a platform or agenda," Plumridge said. "The HEC campaign process will be centered on the candidates concept of honor."
Other SG developments this year include the student-based initiative for a house in Washington, curriculum review, campus safety and student communication with administrative bodies.
ARAMARK food services have been among the leading organizations that have lent an open ear to this student voice. Several SG student surveys concerning food and nutrition have resulted in open dialogue between SG and ARAMARK, as well as the establishment of the first annual SG nutrition fair that took place earlier this month.
Support for Chick-Fil-A, which will open next semester in the Information Systems Building, originated from the student body, as representatives presented the possibility during a question-and-answer session with ARAMARK director James Bellefieul in mid-January.
"(Bringing Chick-Fil-A to campus) has been a great demonstration of the power of students to alter administrative decisions, even relatively late in their implementation," freshman Nick Ferenc said.