The 58th Student Senate met Wednesday night, Oct. 8, for their weekly meeting.
To open the meeting, President Osatohamwen Okundaye facilitated a presentation for a program called “Check I’m Here.” Andy Gould, a senior engagement specialist for the program, presented a presentation (via a Skype call and the Internet) on the program.
Check I’m Here can help manage organizations and events. It tracks students using their mobile device and can conduct polls, elections and waivers. It can assess live attendance at events and provide real-time analysis. It can also engage organizations by using it as a web portal. Additionally, it provides a mobile app for students to gather data. Gould also said that Check I’m Here can help market things that have to do with the college as well.
By using the app, students check what events are happening on campus and check into events as well. For clubs and organizations, it can keep track of members. The service would require an annual subscription fee to use but the student app would be free to download if the service was bought. A year of the service for a campus our size would be roughly $9,300 a year, but with a two or three year agreement the service will go down in price. A trial for the campus would run about $5,500 for six months.
The senate asked Gould questions about the app, including how many schools use the program, if events need approval before being posted on the app and if students would be able to see all the information the app gathered or if there were levels of access.
The senate discussed the program after the presentation. They discussed the pros and cons of the program, if it would be worth the investment and how it would impact the campus and the Student Association (SA).
Mike Patterson also commented on the program by saying that there would be many factors going into either purchasing or testing out the Check I’m Here program.
Okundaye said that he supports the app because it can promote campus engagement between clubs and students. He did note that since that a lot of student information will be contained within the program and app, he believes students should have control over what is and isn’t available for people to read about them.
E-board reports were next.
The first report was from Executive Vice President Jesse Ginsburg. He spoke about various things going on with UPD and other organizations in town including the fact that police are gearing up for Halloween since it is on a Friday this year. He also spoke about how the town council is trying to hire someone to keep track of the finances within the town.
Senate reports followed and senators spoke about recent occurrences. Senators that spoke included Sen. Zach Grossman, who spoke about how he wanted to gain student representatives for a committee for the center for middle eastern dialogue. Sen. Brienna Parsons then spoke about how she wants the president of the college to send out an email about the school saying that it recognizes the Columbus Day break as North American Indigenous peoples’ day in order to honor Native Americans.
Next, Sen. James Auer and VP of Academic Affairs and Governance Jordan Taylor talked about Greek life organizations and how the school determines how much and from where they receive their funding. They also discussed various topics about their funding, mentioning that they want it on record to know how much funding they are getting and where it is coming from. Various senators offered their advice on the issue, which included getting more research on the issues before it was discussed further.