From the president

On Nov. 15, VCU’s Board of Visitors held a meeting for students to attend and give input about how things are going at VCU. The Board of Visitors is the governing body of VCU and its members are appointed by the governor. Normally only about 10 students show up. This year, however, the SGA’s aggressive outreach and activism paid off, and over 35 students attended the invitational BOV meeting and gave input on how VCU could be improved. Members of the board were delighted to hear from such a bright and diverse array of students. Topics discussed included the need for more academic study space and an extension to the library, better accommodations for students who are parents, safety concerns about lighting around campus and a possible campus-wide community service project.

On Nov. 13, the SGA held a lobbying training session to train SGA members and other VCU students on how to advocate for their issues at the General Assembly. The session was organized by SGA Political Affairs Director Maggie O’Brien and featured information on General Assembly hearing schedules and procedures as well as interactive segments on various delegates and state senators. The SGA holds these training sessions to better equip VCU students to advocate for higher education issues at the General Assembly session, which begins in the spring semester. The SGA’s goal is to create a rapid response team of around a dozen students who would be ready to lobby specific legislators or attend committee meetings within a 24 to 72-hour notice.

SGA members attended an open forum on Parking & Transportation Nov. 14. VCU’s Office of Parking and Transportation holds open forums a couple of times a semester to hear student opinions on parking and transportation services at VCU. Some of the issues we discussed were the new parking decks coming online within the next five years, the VCU Campus Connector, the closing of certain streets and the loss of street parking. SGA members in attendance included myself, Executive Director Kaitlin Bowles and student senator Steven Latimer. If you have any questions or concerns, you can e-mail parking@vcu.edu.

The SGA is co-sponsoring a reception to celebrate the culture and heritage of Africa on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Office of Multicultural and Student Affairs on Floyd Street. The reception will include free West African cuisine and live music. The guest speaker will be Craig Shealy, director of JMU’s Beliefs & Values Institute. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend! This event is co-sponsored by the SGA and the Virginia Friends of Mali. For more information, please e-mail me at sgapresident@vcu.edu

The SGA Web site is under construction. It may be unavailable for a few days. We are updating our discussion forums, which were located online at www.vcusga.com/talk. This means that the SGA Book Trading Web site will also be unavailable for several days. The forums are being upgraded to make them more secure for students. Some of the upgrades include a provision for rolling security updates to the backend of the SGA Web site. We hope to complete these upgrades ASAP. For questions or concerns, please e-mail sgatech@vcu.edu.

As always, I want to hear what you think needs to be improved about VCU or how the SGA can help make your VCU experience better. We are your advocates. E-mail me anytime at sgapresident@vcu.edu and make sure to visit our Web site at www.vcusga.com.