At the third Council of Organizations meeting, there was a presentation by representatives from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the results from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).
The Office of Institutional Research and Planning presented last semester’s NSSE results via PowerPoint presentation and President Donald Christian stayed for the duration.
Altogether, 906 first-year and fourth-year students took the survey. Some of the results were presented in bar graph or pie chart format and the topics included the following: amount of volunteer work done, how well students get along with each other, if New Paltz has a favorable image, is the schools foster diversity among students, if New Paltz reached its expectations and various other categories.
Overall, SUNY New Paltz was shown to be a prosperous environment and the fourth-year participants said if they had to make their decision all over again, they would choose New Paltz.
Currently, the Office of Institutional Research and Planning is working on making Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEIs) digital. They have just finished the trial run and the official SEIs will be available for students to submit anonymously starting Nov. 27.
Following this Youssouf Kouyo, vice president of finance, announced that as of Monday, there was $15,000 left for this semester’s general programming budget. He said that this is a shockingly low number and if any clubs are planning on having programs that will cost money, they should see him within the next two weeks.
Shayna Bentley, Council of Organizations chair, announced that all charters were due on Sept. 30 and that there are revised event/program forms. She said it is important that all clubs fill out these forms in order to spread the word to other campus organizations and students in order to foster relationships and possible collaborations.
Student Association (SA) Productions committee officer Wendy Cohen, from Students for Sensible Drug Policy, suggested another way of getting the word out would be to have a list calendar events through different campus media outlets.
Another way clubs can advertise events now is through the RSS feed on the SUNY New Paltz website, under the events page. SA is currently working on updating the RSS feed and spreading awareness to students.
Bentley said clubs don’t take advantage of the website at this time, but it will be an easier and more efficient way to inform everyone. SA Secretary Christine Picault is the one that will be taking the event/program forms and transcribing them so they are available on the website.
At this meeting there was also two positions filled. One of the positions was for SA productions- filled by Katelyn Jones, a member of WFNP The Edge.
The second position that was filled was for council vice chair.
“This is my right hand person. He or she is at all meetings with me,” said Bentley.
By a unanimous vote, the vice chair from last year – Rose Faber – was reinstated.
There are four meetings left for Council of Organizations this semester, with the next meeting set for Monday, Oct. 31. There will be candy and Constitution and Rules Committee nominations.