18 January 2013
“Our mission is legislative and facilitative: we are to rule on issues relating to the student body, and we are to be the liaison between the student body and the faculty and administration. We are committed to lives of service and servant leadership in all areas, feeding the campus ethos and following the mission of the College: to build meaningful lives of achievement and cultural transformation in Christ.”
The Roadmap to an Empowering Year The 2012-13 SGA Agenda
André F. Latimore, Student Body President
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18 January 2013
Dear Fellow Students,
In the spirit of transparency, and as a continuation of the Empowering the Students presidential initiative enacted last semester, I submit this agenda to you for your review. “For just as the body is one and have many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body…” (1 Corinthians 12:12, ESV) The body of King College is made up of many students from all over the United States and the world. Although we may come from different cultures, have different beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences, and express our individuality daily, we learn to interact; building life-long friendships. These differences form the body of King College. Although we have over 2,000 students that attend King College, we still have that small private Christian college feel that most of us fell in love with. That will not change. King will remain entrenched in its Christian traditions and community building commitments. It is my hope that this agenda, as campaigned during Trevor and I’s run, will set us on track to fulfill our aspirations as a student body, and to help better the experiences during our time here at King. Thank you for taking the time to review our agenda, if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns please direct them to me at sga@king.edu.
God Bless,
Dré André F. Latimore President of the Student Body & Government Student Representative to the Board of Trustees King College
Enclosed: 2012-13 SGA Agenda
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18 January 2013
Work Completed and Work In-Progress (Fall Semester 2012)
We helped re-open the King’s Den We met with Jackie Parlier, the former Food Services Director, to develop the cost and items on the menu. We followed-up with the progress of the King’s Den weekly to ensure it’s “on the right track”—staying open, for years to come.
We enacted the Empowering the Students Initiative This initiative has a two part mission: first, improve communication with students; second, better the business practices of the SGA. • Under the communication segment of this initiative, we established the SGA on social media; created the SGA’s first Facebook, Google plus, and Twitter accounts. • We reestablished sga.king.edu and added key tools for students and studentleaders. • Finally, (under the communication segment) we installed a new electronic bulletin system (EBS) or “Digital Sign” to help announce events and promote club involvement. The business practices segment launched a digital campaign, digitizing the forms student-leaders must complete to start a new club or organization and/or request a budget. • As a practice of common curtsey, not overwhelming you with useless emails from the SGA. We limited the use of the SGA email account to sending e-mails of major announcements only, and to respond to student concerns. • We also added a contact us link and a provide feedback link on sga.king.edu.
We also brought attention to some key issues The resident assistants took the initiative to draft a few proposals to improve residence life. We included the proposals in our report to the Board of Trustees, citing the proposal as the initiative of the RAs or I.R.A. for short. We took concerns from several students addressing the internet and restrictions.
We provided feedback to the administration The administration would like to start a new reclining balance system for the King’s Den. This prospective reclining balance will ensure the steadiness of the King’s Den. However, all traditional undergraduate students (residential, transfers, and commuters) would be charged $75.00 per semester or $150.00 for the year. In which the prospective student would be able to use his or her King I.D. in the King’s Den to purchase a meal of their choosing—much like a “King Bucks,” the unused “King Bucks” will rollover from fall to spring but NOT spring to fall. • The SGA had mixed feelings concerning this idea—but overall felt this was a good concept. If you would like to add your suggestions, questions, or concerns about this idea please don’t hesitate to contact us at sga@king.edu. We will ensure all concerns are addressed. In addition, we were informed about possible new meal plan options for residential students.
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18 January 2013
Looking Forward (Spring Semester 2013)
We will follow-up on the I.R.A to ensure our concerns are met. We don’t believe the administration will sweep the issues that matters to the student body under the rug. However, we will continue the discussion to keep the issues “fresh” in the minds of our administrators—to assess their progress in getting our concerns addressed. We will meet with the appropriate administrators to address the concerns heard last semester. (Concerning the internet and the high restrictions) We will establish a new King Recycles Task Force to look at the possibilities of recycling on campus. If you are interested in recycling on campus and would like to serve on the King Recycles Task Force, please contact us at sga@king.edu. We will update the student constitution to keep our practices up to date. The student constitution currently has outdated terminology, positions, and practices. We will update the constitution to provide the terminology and other articles needed to function. Following the updates, we will submit the new constitution to the student body for review and ratification. We will add a new resolution format, because we currently do not have one. Having a resolution format will allow us to keep better records of the laws passed as a student government. This also allows for greater accountability and supervision from you the student concerned. We will upload the minutes from all legislative meetings to sga.king.edu. We believe the best way for you to know what your student government is doing, is to attend the meetings (held every Friday at 9:15 – 10:00 a.m., in Sells Hall 108). However, if you miss a meeting for any reason, having a way to get some information from the meeting is important. We will launch a new podcast series. The podcast will be uploaded to sga.king.edu and our social media accounts. These podcasts will range from being 2 minutes in length to 45 minutes depending on the content. It will add another way to get the information you need and deserve from your government. We will work on building community at King Through SGA sponsored activities and events, and class initiatives, the SGA will continue working hard to provide opportunities for students to fellowship. We will continue to address student concerns. We will have an organized student elections
Thank you for reviewing the 2012-13 SGA agenda. If you have any suggestions and/or want to propose a new agenda item you may do so by emailing us at sga@king.edu. The order of the spring semester agenda as outlined above may or may not follow the same assortment. We reserve the right to add new items to the agenda; we will continue to inform you of our actions—empowering you the student.
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