2008 Woodie Awards
Mad About Midd
Hooray for the SGA
Dave Barker
Issue date: 3/2/06 Section: Opinions
I caught up with SGA President Eli Berman '07.5 the other day. With over a semester in the books and a new one ahead, I thought it time to find out what students can look forward to from their representatives in the remaining three months. Judging from completed legislation, students should have high expectations.
If you don't pour over meeting minutes or have been forgoing the news section for Sudoku, the SGA has set a progressive tone. Maybe you noticed a few extra greenbacks in your pocket after the book buy-back at the end of last semester. Thanks to the SGA's textbook requisition bill, many professors have quit procrastinating over book selection. Close to $19,000 ended up with students after last semester's buy-back -a $13,000 increase. "This has been a good year so far," Berman said. "We're continuing to change the culture."
With further tweaking, the textbook bill will benefit students even more. There should be an enforced deadline for professors, not just an e-mail encouraging timely submission. At other schools, professors miss paychecks when they don't submit reading lists.
Beyond addressing our bookish tendencies, the SGA has focused on transportation. Either this weekend or the next, look for the inauguration of a roundtrip shuttle bus to Burlington on Saturdays that will cost the equivalent of a new Grille entrée ($6). In response to the new liquor inspector, who now ranks just below the Williams Eph on campus popularity polls, the SGA unanimously approved a bill to create a student-run shuttle to and from off-campus parties. The service could begin sometime in March. Berman isn't celebrating just yet. "SafeRides is a band-aid for an open wound," he said.
At the College, few wounds can be described as gaping. "We have it really good here," Berman said. Students enjoy such luxuries as three chocolate fountains at the Winter Carnival dance or a choice of major newspapers to read over Corn Flakes. Yet that hasn't kept Berman and company from giving into student apathy. "We can do things to make the SGA more effectual," he said.
If you don't pour over meeting minutes or have been forgoing the news section for Sudoku, the SGA has set a progressive tone. Maybe you noticed a few extra greenbacks in your pocket after the book buy-back at the end of last semester. Thanks to the SGA's textbook requisition bill, many professors have quit procrastinating over book selection. Close to $19,000 ended up with students after last semester's buy-back -a $13,000 increase. "This has been a good year so far," Berman said. "We're continuing to change the culture."
With further tweaking, the textbook bill will benefit students even more. There should be an enforced deadline for professors, not just an e-mail encouraging timely submission. At other schools, professors miss paychecks when they don't submit reading lists.
Beyond addressing our bookish tendencies, the SGA has focused on transportation. Either this weekend or the next, look for the inauguration of a roundtrip shuttle bus to Burlington on Saturdays that will cost the equivalent of a new Grille entrée ($6). In response to the new liquor inspector, who now ranks just below the Williams Eph on campus popularity polls, the SGA unanimously approved a bill to create a student-run shuttle to and from off-campus parties. The service could begin sometime in March. Berman isn't celebrating just yet. "SafeRides is a band-aid for an open wound," he said.
At the College, few wounds can be described as gaping. "We have it really good here," Berman said. Students enjoy such luxuries as three chocolate fountains at the Winter Carnival dance or a choice of major newspapers to read over Corn Flakes. Yet that hasn't kept Berman and company from giving into student apathy. "We can do things to make the SGA more effectual," he said.