This edition of Council Clippings covers the UHR and GSS meetings from Feb. 17, 2009.
Progress and Service Award
The SGA Academic Affairs Committee requested funding to establish the Georgia Tech Student Government Progress and service award. They asked for $3,218 for the award’s stipend, an ad in the Technique and crystal paper weights.
The award is intended to recognize students who have made a positive impact on the Tech community. Any undergraduate student with good academic standing is eligible.
In order to be considered, the student must complete an application and complete an interview with the SGA Academic Affairs Committee. Three undergraduate students will be chosen to receive the award.
The authors of the bill asked to change the language of the language to state that the award winner would receive a $1,000 stipend and not a $1,000 scholarship.
Since this is an undergraduate student initiative the GSS did not consider the bill. The UHR passed the bill with little dicussion 33-2-1.
Industrial Design Competition
The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) chapter at Tech requested funds to attend the IDSA Southern Distruct Conference in New Orleans.
They requested $2,693 for conference fees, trip reimbursement, their exhibit and promotional banners.
At the conference, students will show off an exhibit comprised of the collective work from Tech Industrial Deisgn program. Students also use the conference to share ideas with students from other schools. Over 50 students are expected to drive to New Orleans to attend the conference.
The amount of money for promotional banners was reduced to $36 by both the UHR and GSS. The bill passed GSS 18-0-1 and the passed the UHR 34-1-0.
Islam Awareness Series
The Muslim Student Association requested funds to pay the honorariums for four speakers invited to speak during the Islam Awareness Series.
The speakers are Jamal Ud-Deen Hysaw, Hadia Mubarak, Muhammad bin Yahya Al-Ninowy and Adeyinka Abdul-Haqq Mendes.
The Muslim Student Association asked each speaker for their lowest fee. Three speakers requested $500 and Mubarak requested $1,000, for a total of $2,500.
The goal of Fifth Annual Islam Awareness Series is to inform and allow people to ask questions about Islam.
The GSS said that they were concerned about the series’ growing cost over the years and reminded the UHR that the SGA should be viewpoint neutral. They also stated that none of the speakers intended to prostelitize.
The GSS passed the bill 15-3-2 and the UHR passed the bill 34-1-0.
Megamod Policy
The SGA passed a new Megamod policy that will govern how campus-wide emails will be sent out by the Office of the Dean of Students. The new policy will send a weekly digest email to all students on Mondays. Chartered student organizations and Institute departments are eligible to submit announcements. Student organizations will be able to make only one announcement per week. This new policy is slated to be complete and fully enacted by July 1.