85 Years at CofC/ 85 Ways SGA Served the Students in 2007-2008

Celebrating 85 Years at CofC/85 Ways SGA Served the Students in 2007-2008

1. Successful solicitation of input from students concerning changes to commencement ceremony; representation on commencement committee while talking about changes
2. Establishment of Spirit Panel including 40 faculty, staff, and students from which ideas such as the Habitat Blitz Build was launched; beginning of the Cougar Spirit Initiative (C.S.I.)
3. Stronger bonds formed with Athletics, the President’s Office, Neighborhood Associations, Athletics, Marketing and Communications, the City Council, New Student Programs, the College Bookstore, Disability Services, Alumni Relations, Student Media and local media, Faculty Senate, Charleston Police Department
4. Representation on the Inauguration Committee and representation during the Installation Ceremony
5. Installation of a flagpole honoring the Charleston 9 and ceremony; distribution of Charleston 9 pins
6. All orientation and SPECTRA students addressed
7. Hosted Bike Auction raising $3000 to support costs of the flagpole
8. Executive Board members addressed 25 freshman seminar classes including the new Honors ICE classes
9. Planned and MCed the first ever No Victims, No Violence week; will become an annual event
10. Began a tradition of Monday afternoon press conferences with the GSO (and sometimes CTV)
11. Worked with Student Life on Leadership Summit; assisted with change to Student Organization Summit 2009
12. Worked with the Campus Bookstore to distribute “Bad Cougar Coupons”
13. Distributed the ever-popular “discount cards”
14. Assisted with publicity of the Bicentennial of the Abolishment of the Slave Trade events throughout the year
15. Hosted two Treasurer’s Workshops
16. Delivered successful presentations on community involvement to the Town and Gown committee and the City Council
17. Participation in the Town and Gown dinner by student organization presidents rose from 4 to 85 students
18. After the Senate and President Benson signed into being a resolution declaring the College of Charleston a campus of ONE, it ignited the compassion and interest of many CofC students, propelling CofC into leadership positions and national attention throughout much of the ONE Campus Challenge
19. Successfully completed another year of re-registering the 100 active organizations on campus
20. Held the first Neighborhood Forum in recent memory with neighbors, law enforcement, and media in attendance
21. Acknowledged Peace One Day; addressed student concerns to the administration about the bomb threat that day
22. Participated in Dash for Trash and won “Most Spirited Team”
23. Legislation passed by Freshman Senator John Capelle extended the hours of Liberty Cafeteria until 9 p.m.
24. Worked with the librarians at Addlestone Library on suggestions to make the resources of the library more accessible to students
25. Made information about the new printing policy available to students and addressed their concerns to the library; held multiple forums about the new policy
26. Supported the creation of the Graduate Student Association
27. Planned ONE Week: Our Generation Makes the Difference including plans for a voter registration drive, MTV’s Rock the Vote, Stephen Colbert, an International Festival of ONE, and a blood drive. Though Rock the Vote and Stephen Colbert didn’t make it, still worked with 11 organizations, the League of Women Voters, to register 70 new voters. Jared Esselman (now one of us!) worked with the Political Science Dept. to organize a campaign fair. We submitted this to USAWeekend’s Make a Difference Day competition and should hear back soon about the results.
28. Hosted a Dessert Extravaganza as part of President Benson’s Installation Ceremony.
29. Hosted the most successful Major/Minor Fair in recent memory
30. Hosted ONE night in Poverty on the Cistern with attention from the Post and Courier and local TV stations
31. Supported the judging of Pep Supper and the Borelli Awards
32. Unprecedented presence at neighborhood association meetings
33. Had a Dance Marathon team for the first time
34. Hosted an educational session as part of the ACUI Regional Conference on building school spirit
35. Put together 10 volunteers for Debi’s Kids at Longwood Plantation (they raised $1400 for children’s Christmas toys)
36. Worked for six months to encourage Faculty Senate to modify Latin Honors and they did! Was put into effect in February 2009 for the class of 2008
37. Volunteered 65 hours for the Habitat Blitz Build including building time and book buyback volunteering (this does not count contributions towards planning for the four months prior)
38. Established a President’s Student Council
39. Held fourth State of the Student Body Address
40. Designed Spirit Packet for Homecoming and came in 2^nd place in the competition for the Spirit Cup
41. Helped recruit 30 student volunteers for the Peer Assistance Leaders program and worked with Charleston Police Chief, CofC Public Safety Chief, and Evie Nadel to create program
42. Represented students at the African American Cemetery Memorial Dedication
43. Helped Public Safety conduct a safety walk
44. Allocated $105,000 to 64 sanctioned student organizations
45. Conducted Fall and Spring Elections
46. Continued last year’s tradition of bimonthly Senator PAWs
47. Communicated with the students via e-mail at least bi-monthly for the first time in recent memory
48. Re-instated the campus-wide Diversity Committee for a second year
49. Hosted a “brown bag lunch” to raise awareness about Ba’hai’s in Iran
50. Hosted a Good Citizen’s Fair in November 2007
51. Secured roughly 160 pints of blood for the American Red Cross through two blood drives
52. Conducted House of Representatives meetings
53. Hosted numerous successful beach sweeps
54. Submitted suggestions to the administration concerning the condition of James Island Fields for sports clubs
55. Encouraged Board of Trustees to produce a “layman’s version” of the tuition breakdown for students and parents to see where their money is going
56. Hosted a couple of successful “Bring a Friend to Senate” days
57. Established a Student Affairs ad hoc committee to assist Senators in successfully bringing legislation to fruition
58. Passed a bill allowing for non-Senators to run for Executive Council positions other than President (with a few stipulations)
59. Updated bill forms and elections packets
60. Assisted Alliance for Planet Earth by working with Aramark to place signs on tables in Liberty cafeteria asking students to not waste food
61. Invited students to address questions to President and Mrs. Benson during a Senate meeting
62. Conducted a SWOT analysis with undergraduate students
63. Spoke to over 6,000 prospective students on behalf of SGA through three Open Houses and a day for scholarship students
64. SGA provided undergraduate representation on the Strategic Planning Steering Committee and the following Strategic Planning sub-committees: Core Values, Core Purpose, Environmental Analysis, Competitive Analysis
65. Assisted with the coordination of three undergraduate focus groups
66. Assisted Alumni Relations with plans for the Delphi Society, a networking opportunity for juniors and seniors
67. Registered 20 organizations
68. Granted 11 organizations sanctioned status
69. Distributed contingency funds
70. Had representation on over 17 administrative, faculty, and community committees
71. Representation at the Board of Trustees’ Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and general board meetings
72. Worked with Women and Gender Studies and People Against Rape to organize Take Back the Night for the CofC campus
73. Helped organize Spring Break Send Off to raise awareness about Spring Break safety measures
74. Major bylaws overhaul
75. Conducted first Constitution Convention
76. Survived an impeachment process and tumultuous elections
77. Improved SGA website
78. Worked to create stronger relationships with organizations such as BSU and Gay-Straight Alliance
79. Hung “Did you Know?” material about the College the first week of classes to help new students feel at home
80. Hosted two student organization street fairs
81. Participated in conference calls and the South Carolina State Student Association Conference for the first time in years
82. Two SCSSA Executive Board members were elected from our SGA
83. Made recommendations to President Benson and Board of Trustees to increase Student Activities fees
84. Attempted to establish Senator Ambassador program
85. Conducted 24 Senate meetings