On Thursday, I, along with several other Student Senators, attended the Day of Discourse.  I sat at a very lively table that discussed how to create an ethos on honesty and integrity on campus.  Though the number of students and faculty who were invited or who attended was a little bit discouraging, I appreciated the conversations and any discussion about academic integrity is imperative right now.  On that same topic, the Special Committee on Academic Integrity, chaired by Senator Jayme Feldman, will now be co-chaired by Kevin Smith.  The mission of this committee will not be to repeat research and reiterate discussions.  The committee will be charged with researching and formulating general student opinions on the suggested honor code, providing student viewpoints to the Academic Honesty Committee, and devise plans for implementation of the honor code with include judiciaries.  The committee will also be required to keep in close communication with the Academic Honesty Committee, through our chairperson Senator Feldman.  Thanks for your leadership with this committee, Jayme.

On Thursday I also had an interview with a reporter from the Post about President McDavis’s goals for improving the off-campus environment, and as I told the reporter, I am incredibly encouraged by his willingness to work on this issue and include Student Senate. 

Friday, I led the SAC General Body meeting, which was quite fun, and I encourage anyone to attend a meeting just to introduce yourself because sometimes it’s easy to forget that SAC is an arm of Student Senate, and a very important arm, at that.  Also on Friday I attended the Budget Planning Council where we talked about faculty and staff compensation for the entire meeting.  It was interesting to note that of our “presidential peer institutions” we ranked second to last in faculty salaries, and among our “provost peer institutions” in Ohio we rank fourth.  I’d love to chare more of this information with anyone interested. 

Also on Friday I met with Dale Tampke and we talked about the Civic Responsibility Committee which was started by President McDavis and Major Abel last year.  Four ideas came from the committee last year, and they need some serious student input.  They committee is dedicated to soliciting this input and has asked Student Senators to sit on the committee.  We can expect resolutions accepting, changing, or rejecting these ideas.  Briefly the Dale presented me with these four ideas: off-campus learning communities, certified landlord program, preferred tenant program, and a national town / gown relations meeting.  I look forward to hearing from Commissioners Estok and Vonville about the shaping and molding of these ideas. 

The Executive Officer’s lunch with President McDavis and Provost Krendl was cancelled because of a press conference, and though I was disappointed about the cancellation, we should find out the re-scheduled date tomorrow, and I’ll be sure to let you know.  Issues we are planning to discuss are the off-campus environment, programming money (for the millionth time), retention rates, and academic integrity.  Please let me know what other initiatives you’d like us to bring up. 

I pledge to you all that I will be as assertive as necessary on any and all issues that this Student Senate deems as important, while considering and maintaining effective relationships.

In lu of the meeting, VP Crites, Treasurer McKenney and I had an awesome meeting at China King.

I also did the training for the message board and met with our PR director Mereditch McIntosh to talk about ways we can give our beloved Senate a PR facelift.