I was elected Tuesday to a Loyola’s Student Affairs Unified Planning Committee as part of Shared Governance.

I was elected by Unified Student Government… sweet!

On the committee there are 4 undergraduate students, one graduate student, two staff members, two faculty members, and one representative from the VP of Student Affairs office (who happens to be the Dean of Students, but it doesn’t have to be.)

What does this all mean? Well, I’m only 90% sure… but from what I have been able to tell I am 1 of 10 people at the university that can vote on/bring up proposed policy changes in regards to student affairs and then send them to be implemented. If they are not properly implemented or implemented in a manor that pleases the committee, the committee can appeal to the president of the university directly for him to take action. Of course, if it is a MAJOR thing then it goes up to the Board of Trustees, but the only way I could see the board having to pay attention to our committee would be if there was a request to change the student fees.

Here is a situation that I could see possibly coming up:
Loyola offers new apartment style housing, with 12 month leases, that students can take advantage of if they pay for it. Now, this is a new style of housing, so a lot of the other rules about what happens in housing probably wouldn’t apply the same way. The student handbook needs to be updated. The student affairs committee would take a look at the situation, ask for information from people involved in the project, look at things like insurance, upkeep costs and what other schools do in similar situations and then the UPC would request to amend the student handbook to reflect these new policies. These resolutions are passed by the committee, the VP of students does a quick once over and it is added to the handbook.

Now, say the VP of Students says “no way, we are NOT allowing people to paint their walls”, we can go to the president and say “the VP of Students doesn’t want people to be able to paint their walls, but these students are entering into 12 month contracts for basically apartments, so as long as they switch it back to white in 12 months we think it will be OK.” The President would look at the situation, gather information, and most likely implement the UPCs agenda. The UPC represents the opinion of all the parts of the university (students, faculty and staff), so if the president says no he is basically saying no to every person in the university.

But it isn’t just willy nilly, things like the mission of the university and what is best for all people need to be part of the discussion. For example, condom distribution… uhh… not gonna happen at a catholic university. Not saying it isn’t a really good idea, but very ‘un-catholic’ (not to mention it would be shot down immediately by the president if he even heard of it being approved, no matter if people started knocking on his door (a door I can see right now from my window) at 3AM every night)

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Ever since Loyola’s Mock Trial team placed 6 in their division (which puts them in 12th place nationally, I believe) there has been something of a buzz… especially with the President of the University.

Well, he tends to like successful stuff. Looks good to new students.

So he gave Mock Trial a blank check. We are talking $30k-40k/year here

So two of our ’seniors’ (you will see why I put them in quotes in a moment) went to talk with him, and came back to our class and introduced what they talked with him about.

Of course, the two ’seniors’ just aren’t ready to leave until they win a national championship. So they also got Fr. Garanzini to approve considering them ‘continuing education’ students by letting them teach a class. Because they are still considered students here, they can still participate (according to national rules, only Law students are prevented from participating and any grad student can participate if they did not already participate for 5 years)

Since all of the presidents of Catholic universities are invited to meet with the pope soon, I heard one of the better quotes I have witnessed in a while.

“He seemed to really enjoy talking with us, of course, he is going to see the pope“

So last night I made my 2nd call to Campus Safety since I programed their number into my phone.

Last time it was because of some dude that was hanging out and harassing people by the CVS, this time it was because I heard some girl screaming out my window.

Now it didn’t sound like ‘i’m in trouble’ screaming, but it was something. I tried to ignore it for like 10 minutes, but when it kept going I was like ‘better safe than sorry.’

So I called Campus Safety, told them where I heard it. They asked if I would like to be known and I told them I would prefer not to.

It was probably nothing, but hey… good thing I have that number programed into my phone.

Congratulations to Loyola’s Mock Trial Team. They placed 6th in their region at the national tournament
2 of our people are considered ‘All-American’ for their performances as attorney and witness, so congrats to Joe and Mike

The team they lost to went to the final round undefeated, loosing in a split decision in the championship, so I guess if you are going to get beat that is the team to beat you… they say there were 40 people watching that round… I wish I would have been there to see it…

I don’t know why I care so much… I wasn’t all that good at it and thanks to a few misunderstandings and a somewhat awkward demeanor I don’t know what I am thought of by the rest of the team and the coach. So I don’t even know if I will be invited back next year.

It isn’t that I want to claim ownership of the team’s success, but at the same time I would like to think that I gave something to the team as a whole other than support and getting a camcorder for the group that went to the national tournament.

It is better not to think about it right now I guess. To go back to doing whatever it is that I do during my normal Monday mornings… which at the moment seems to be sitting in front of my computer with the window cracked open and the fan running, procrastinating on writing a few papers that were due last week…

So, congrats to them. I’ll have to smile and say so when I next see them in person

Unified Student Government here at Loyola has a problem… that becomes all too aparant when they have their elections…

They just aren’t relevant at this school

It is nothing against the people in USG, they are all great people. It is just that they have no real power

A few days ago I was at an ‘event’ where candidates for next year’s USG board were serving free pizza to students. Free pizza always attracts a crowd and it was a good opportunity for the candidates to talk with people. I love pizza and talking to people, so I decided to go.

I walked up and got my pizza and diet pepsi and went to find a spot to sit down. I found a seat and started eating, hungry after classes, and was approached by a girl that I met freshman year and who (I believe) lives in my apartment complex. She was campaigning for a student running for president and I asked her a few questions, like why she wasn’t running and etc.

She kept pushing how great her candidate was and I smiled as I ate. She had some literature that she was handing out about her candidate, and since she somewhat forced it into my hand I decided to take it and glance over it. “Best for students” or something similar was on the top of the literature she gave out, with a picture of the man running for president and his email address. She walked away and I finished my pizza and tossed out my paper plate and can of soda along with the lit.

As I was leaving the room, I went by her and smiled. I didn’t have anything to do at that specific moment, so I figured I would ask: “What has USG done lately to help students”

She started making a mountain out of a molehill, talking about how they had not done much at all but they did reorganize their constitution. She also pointed out that USG did work with the school to alter the shuttle bus schedules and found out that only 17% of the student activity fee ‘goes back to students.’ My ‘time to chime in with my opinion’ button had been pushed. I mentioned that the reason they couldn’t do anything more is because they had no power, that all of the decisions were being made by the president of the university and all USG could do is ask stuff from him (which they rarely got.) I also mentioned that 100% of our student fees go towards student services, like the Wellness Center (for those times when you need cotton removed from your ear) and Student Life, and that really the only complaint is that students only have direct control over 17% of the funds and think that they should have 100% control, which they don’t and probably shouldn’t.

I didn’t get much of a reply to that, mostly that the person she was campaigning for talked with the president and vice president of student life constantly to bring up the needs of students. I nodded and it was obvious the conversation was over, but as I walked back to my apartment I kept wondering “how could I make USG relevant if I ran it.” As I thought that I managed to come up to an old friend from freshman year and began talking to her, and I haven’t really thought about it since.