Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Sept. 9, 2011, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 NEWS Excitement grows as Community Senate develops new agenda By Bryan Dooley Staff Writer On Aug. 31, Community Senate met for the first time this semester to develop their agenda for the year. The meeting began with senior and Clerk/President of Community Senate Yahya Alazrak explaining to newcomers how Community Senate functioned. Alazrak stressed Senate's commitment to community participation this year. Alazrak then allowed Steering Committee and other students in attendance to introduce themselves. Members from last year explained ongoing projects such as finalizing the social honor code and modifying the Community Center. There is a great deal of excitement within Senate over the social honor code. The code attempts to define what Guilford College embodies as an institution while embracing diversity, equality, and peace among the Guilford community. "The social honor code is something I care a lot about," said junior and Diversity Action Chair Tim Leisman. The only thing that makes Leisman nervous about this year is how the administration may react to "students challenging the status quo." He said that there is a question of what will happen if the social honor code conflicts with Campus Life. "As long as we stick to representing the students, we can't go wrong," Leisman said. The meeting then welcomed attendees to openly express any further concerns. Some of these concerns included cleaning up the lake, campus safety, getting a pool, and the wireless Internet speed. Those present were invited to place dots next to their top five concerns in a process termed "dotmocracy." The items with the most dots will help form Senate's agenda. "I really liked the amount of student input that we got and I think we got a good pulse on what people want to see get done on this campus," Alazrak said. "I think that is fantastic." "Yahya did a good job clerking in his first official meeting," said senior and Inter-Club Council Chair Elijah DaCosta. Senate also announced that they will use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to try to draw more attention to their meetings. "Transparency is what people want," said junior and Communications and Campus Life Chair Paula Skandis. Skandis did not think these outlets were used enough to build communication last year. There is also a commitment to getting clubs more involved. "I would like to see clubs feel more comfortable coming to Senate," said DaCosta. "Telling us what they want, and asking what they can do better to reach continued standards of excellence." DaCosta also commented on possible challenges that will be facing Community Senate this year. "Every year there are a lot of people that feel that Community Senate does not represent them," DaCosta said. "One of the challenges we'll have this year is reaching out to everyone and making sure they're all heard, because that is really hard." In spite of what challenges may lie ahead. Director of Student Leadership and Engagement Erin Fox has high hopes that people will feel like they have something to share, get involved, and participate in Senate this year. "Everybody seems to have good energy," said Fox. "It seems like it is going to be a very busy year, but very positive." (Top) Nicole Gullfoyle '12 participates in the "dotmocracy" poll during Senate. (Bottom) Yahya Alazrak ’ 12, explains the new Senate agenda to Isabell Brace *14, Ruth DeButts '14, and Erich Pohanka '12. College aims to take threats to TASC By Adrienne Mattson-Perdue Staff Writer As violence on college campuses has grown, college administrations and counseling departments around the nation have begun to focus on ways to prevent tragedies. Guilford College has recently picked up this trend with the Threat Assessment and Students Concerns Team. For many years, members of the Campus Life office met weekly to review incident reports. Early last year, this meeting was expanded to include Barbara Boyette, the assistant academic dean for student support, and Gaither Terrell, director of the counseling center. The team continued to grow director of public "They should have student visufroSjofctne Involvement in the team." Deisinger, director of Paul Bersoff, senior threat management at Virginia Tech. TASC was announced as a formal organization this fall. committee is not to bring information that I know about students who might be in counseling," said Terrell in an email interview. "My role is to serve as a consultant to the committee on mental health issues. We take confidentiality seriously." The team looks out for patterns in student behavior that suggest something is wrong. They are not just hoping to identify students who may be a threat to themselves or the campus community, but to intervene with students who may be having problems before they become serious. "Public Safety sometimes hears some things, faculty hear some things, we hear some things, RAs hear some things, but if we don't all get together and put all the little pieces together it doesn't ever necessarily look like something big," said Agon "But when you have all the pieces you can often see that it's something more serious." Some students are concerned the team may not be effective. "I think they should have student involvement in the Currently, the team consists of Boyette, team," said senior criminal justice and Terrell, Stowe, CCE Admissions Counselor psychology major Paul Bersoff. "I think the Rob Overman, Associate Dean for Campus students just have a better idea of what's Life Tammy Alt, Associate Dean for Campus going on on campus. Life Jennifer Agor, Director of Residence Life Susanna Westberg, and Director of Student Judicial Affairs Sandy Bowles. The group meets weekly to review incident reports; they also consider students' performance in classes and hear concerns from professors. "The purpose of my presence on the Nonetheless, programs like TASC are available on nearly every college campus in the country. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has a similar program, as does Fordham University in New York. "I definitely think it is something that every campus needs," said Agor. •Communiiy Senate Update* -Senate misspelled "senators" in last week's issue. -Senate discussed transportation, forth coming Community Center committee -Went over student ideas and projects from last week Thinking about safety, sustain ability, and Social Honor Code (amongst other things) and how to engage students. stuff we're dotni stuff we're Make a decision on bus passes in lieu of HEAT, next Wednesday 7 p.m in Boren Lounge Have an idea or have a beauti ful ancedote about Guilford life? Email senate(gguilford.edu stuff you wanna see done
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 9, 2011, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75