SGA Update

Author: Aseem Mulji

For what was likely to be his last Student
Government Association (SGA) meeting as
SGA President, Bobby Joe Smith III '09 set
a jam-packed, comprehensive agenda. He
hosted three guest speakers from the administration who presented reports and fielded questions on current hot-button issues, including the comprehensive fee, the budget, dining services, gym hours and revisions to the Honor Code.

Acting Provost Tim Spears stressed that
the administration and the Board of Trustees are aware of the effects of a bearish economy on the student body and are responding as well as they can. The administration has committed itself to transparency and has recognized the need to "communicate, communicate, communicate."

Despite the administration's efforts to
keep students involved, many SGA members
still felt left out of the loop.

"There is a general feeling that students
haven't been able to participate in the decision-making process," said Smith '09.

Spears' response: time. He argued that
costs must be cut as soon as possible - budget decisions cannot always go through the lengthy consensus building process. He suggested that the SGA encourage students to feed budget suggestions to the student members of the Budget Oversight Committee
(BOC), the SGA president and Finance Com-
mitte Chair Caroline Woodworth '09.

First-year Senator Pathik Root and
Sophomore Senator Ashley Quisol both sug-
gested that the SGA be given access to more
BOC information.

The open-question format allowed the
SGA members to steer the discussion in
whichever direction they pleased. First-year Senator Ethan Schmertzler asked when Atwater would reopen after its closure in January 2010.

"Not in the foreseeable future," said
Spears. However, after renovations in Ross
and Proctor are completed, there will be more seats available than there are currently in Ross, Atwater and FIC. Spears also explained that the entire process will most likely result in a loss of about 20-25 Dining Services jobs.

The discussion then shifted to the athletics budget. Junior Senator Anne Weinberg expressed concern about the reduction of the Athletic Facilities' open hours. She pointed out that before the cut, many students with afternoon classes utilized athletic facilities between 9 a.m. and noon. Many of her constituents would be willing to work for free to keep the Athletic Center open until midnight, she explained.

Associate Dean of the College Karen
Guttentag and Acting Dean of the College
Gus Jordan also attended the meeting to
present the recommendations of the Honor
Code Review Committee (HCRC), which is
responsible for reviewing the Honor Code
system every four years.

Guttentag announced that the committee has recommended three changes to the Honor Code Constitution itself. These changes will require a student referendum organized by the SGA in which at least two-thirds of the student body must take part.

Both Jordan and Guttentag said that
the committee made its recommendations
after collecting community responses to
online questionnaires about cheating. Their
research led them to an important conclusion: cheating does happen at Middlebury College. Constitutional recommendations were made with this fact in mind.

The SGA, Community Council and
Faculty Council will all meet with the HCRC
on Monday, March 2 to discuss and formally
respond to the recommended constitutional
changes.

The Academic Honesty Statement,
Constitution and community responses to
the HCRC questionnaire can all be found
under "Academic Information and Policies"
on the Middlebury College Web site.