SGA has formed a new student committee for the purpose of creating a white paper to summarize a list of student suggestions for Tech’s new president.
The 11-member committee is comprised of a mixture of student leaders from different campus organizations, including SGA positions, the National Pan-Hellenic Council and various academic societies.
The function of the special committee is to provide the new Tech president with a set of guidelines that represent the overall position of the student body on various matters that are important to Tech students.
“We are planning to put together as much information as possible to provide for the new President in terms of what is important to students,” said Jason Middleton, fourth-year BC and chair of the SGA Parking and Transportation Committee.
Since all of the student committee members come from a variety of organizations, the hope is that a diverse selection of student-related objectives will be compiled.
Not only will committee members representing organizations play a role in the formation of the white paper, the students’ participation and membership in other organizations and groups on campus will also provide sources of input.
“Because of my position of chairman of Parking, Transportation and Facilities Committee, I will make sure the paper explains all consensus requests from students in these areas,” Middleton said. “Also, [as a] member of many organizations around campus, I will make sure the needs and wants of student organizations are brought to the new President.”
There aren’t specifics yet on the actual topics to be covered in the white, as the committee has yet to have their first meeting. However, there is a general idea about what kinds of items will be discussed for the white paper.
“Our main objective is to first research and understand the students’ needs in campus life and be able to effectively present this to the President,” said Brian Tyson, fourth-year EE and SGA director of Communications. “We also want to cover any ongoing projects or initiatives that students have felt strongly about or that were started during Dr. Clough’s administration.”
Not only will the paper provide the new president information on current issues that are important to Tech students, but it also aims to establish a direction for student priorities into the near future.
“The white paper will point the new president towards the most important priorities for students in the next decade,” said Will Woodworth, third-year MGT and PSYC major and athletics representative for the SGA in the UHR.
Members of Tech’s student population will not be completely left out of the decision process if they feel that the representative members of the committee do not take into account their opinions or idea.
According to Nick Wellkamp, undergraduate student body president, SGA and the committee plan to hold multiple open forum discussions in the coming weeks in order for the committee to get a wide range of student feedback on the priorities that will go into the white paper.
Other committee members: