Dear Students:

The beginning of Spring semester is flying by quickly, but as we look back at the Fall semester, our student body has much to be proud of.  On Thursday, January 31st, I had the privilege to speak about many of these accomplishments as part of the State of the Student Body Address in Alumni Hall.  In addition, SGA Vice President Seaton Brown talked about positive changes that he has witnessed within the SGA Senate, SGA Treasurer Anthony Parker updated the audience on the financial status of student organizations, and Graduate Student Association President Otis Pickett spoke about the state of the graduate student body.

Another important project that we’ve been working on within the SGA is the Peer Assistance Leadership (P.A.L.) program.  This program, in conjunction with Charleston Southern, enables college students to be trained by the Charleston Police Department in order to assist their peers who may be in dangerous situations on the weekends.  The student body has responded tremendously.  Within a couple short weeks of time, twice the amount of expected volunteers were recruited.  The training is February 9th, and volunteers will still be accepted through February 8th.  For more information or to sign-up, please contact the SGA at cofcsga@gmail.com.

Additionally, College of Charleston students experienced an academic victory last week.  After months of hard work by the SGA Academic Affairs committee and Faculty Academic Standards committee, Provost Jorgens announced on January 29th that the Latin Honors requirements will be lowered for seniors graduating in May 2008.  The new requirements are as follows: min. req. for summa cum laude will change from 3.95 to 3.9; req. for magna cum laude will change from 3.8 to 3.75; and cum laude will change from 3.6 to 3.5.

As always, we encourage you to send any questions or concerns to cofcsga@gmail.com, and you are welcome to attend and participate in our Senate meetings held every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in the Stern Center Ballroom.

I will close with a summary part of the State of the Student Body Address:

“In the time that I have attended the College of Charleston, I have never seen students come together the way they have this year, and that is something that makes me very proud to be a College of Charleston student. As members of the College of Charleston community, we have made our voice heard on issues that affect us academically, we have shown desire to improve the relationship with our neighbors and to tackle global issues, and we have experienced unprecedented philanthropic success.  There is a fire in our students now that I did not originally see when I stepped onto this campus three years ago. We must keep it burning and humbly continue to change the world for the better – not being so laid back that we fall over, but College of Charleston style – working hard with joy and enthusiasm while still making it look effortless.”

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and productive semester.

Respectfully,

Whitney Hinds

Student Body President