USG talks about change

Last Thursday, USG met to discuss two new residence halls, class changes, and parking.

Tyler Cooper, Executive Vice President, announced that Aspen Hall will open in the spring semester. Aspen Hall is the newly renovated residence hall that used to be Sigma Nu’s round house. The leadership themed house will be open for 23 students. More details will follow on how students may apply to live in this hall. Cooper also announced that admissions should be lower next year, returning to the average admittance of roughly 950 students, compared to this year’s admissions of 1060 students. Over 9000 applications have already been submitted to Mines for next year, an increase of 25% from last year, with many more expected.

Alyssa Brown, Faculty-At-Large, announced that the Math department will relabel MATH 407 to MATH 307, along with several other changes to classes and prerequisites. Chemistry will require students to take Ethics earlier so that students may apply their learning to future classes. LAIS will begin offering French next year, for a total of four foreign languages offered at Mines.

Brown also reported on the faculty senate meeting. There is currently concern that the May graduating class, which is expected to be the largest in history, will cause the ceremony to run long. As a result, the senate discussed the possibility of holding three graduations, one for each of the colleges. These ceremonies would be all held on the same day, but at different times. Currently students are only allowed to invite four guests and this could potentially also allow students to have more guests.

In January, construction on a new Alumni/Welcome house will begin along with construction of a new dorm and cafeteria. The construction is expected to finish by August 2014. These buildings will likely completely close parking lot E. Josh Ho, Institution-At-Large, explained that these lots will close by April. As a result, Facilities Management is discussing changing the J lot to a general parking only lot. This would then require commuter students to only park on the west side of campus in either ford or Q lots.

Trevor Crane, Executive Treasurer, announced that budget committee is designing a process to allow clubs, organizations, and individuals to apply for money. The money would be accessible from USG funds, which stem from money left over from reallocations earlier this year.

Freshmen President Tyler Courtney announced that the Freshmen Class will be sponsoring Midnight Madness. This event will occur Tuesday, November 27, from 10 pm to midnight following the next calculus exam.

Sophomores are currently setting up a Sophomore Study Session to occur December 5 to help prepare students for finals. It is expected that several teachers and teaching aids will be present at the study session to help students.

The Junior class is in the process of getting their class t-shirt approved. The shirts will go on sale for $5 to juniors, and will likely be given away for free at office hours or during events. In an attempt to raise school spirit, the juniors anticipate giving away goodies to students wearing the shirts at school events.
The Senior class announced a financial workshop that will emphasis mortgages, investing and how to live as an adult in the real world after graduation. The several hour course is set to occur on January 26 with food available. The workshop will be available to 40 seniors and registration will take place next semester.

The Food Service Committee announced that the Slate Café could potentially close from 2 to 4:30 pm between lunch and dinner in order to extend hours in the morning and evening. Students should expect to receive an email later this week to provide feedback to this proposition. Discussion was also brought up that students may be given the ability to donate left over munch money and meals at the end of the semester to charity. Additionally, the espresso machine at the Starbucks in Brown Building is finally up and running.

Derek Morgan announced that Jennifer Mazzotta has accepted the position as Director of Student Activities, which became vacant after Marie Hornickel left earlier this year. Jennifer comes to Mines from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California where she most recently served as the Assistant Director of Student Activities.

The Community-At-Large position will be coming vacant in the spring semester. Students interested in filling the position or with concerns about the school, should contact their USG representatives. Contact information is available on USG’s website, http://mines.orgsync.com/org/usg.