With a couple months under its belt, the Campus Alliance slate has finished some platform items and started the process of working on others.
President Frank Hood, Vice President Carrie Cozad, Secretary Ebony Strong and Treasurer Moses Jones, cabinet members and senators have talked to administrators, students and the city of Muncie to try and push through the 24 platform items Campus Alliance campaigned on Spring Semester.
Below is an update on how each item is progressing:
CommunityWork with Facilities Planning and Management to improve campus drainage: Hood said Jones met with Kevin Kenyon, associate vice president of Facilities Planning and Management, during the summer to discuss the issue. Kenyon said his crews would work on it during the school year, Hood said.
Work with the city to repair and improve roads and sidewalks near campus: Hood said Secretary of Community Relations Jacinta Yanders has been in contact with City Hall about the issue. The Off-Campus Caucus is planning to track road conditions and the Student Government Association will advertise the Muncie Pothole Repair Hotline, he said.
Create a Ball State University-wide philanthropy: Hood said he and his slate members met with various students and decided another philanthropy would not be the best idea. Because of that decision, Campus Alliance decided an already existing philanthropy should be supported. Hood said further discussions led to SGA deciding to support the Ball State Dance Marathon in the spring.
Implement more benches around the Quad: Hood said Cozad has met with several administrators about the issue and received mixed responses. He said some liked the idea but others feared it would damage and clutter the landscape. The platform item is still being discussed, he said.
Provide heat lamps at bus stops during the winter months: Hood said Jones and Kenyon discussed the issue and the administration did not support the issue because of costs and the lamps not having a visually pleasing sight on campus. Campus Alliance is still researching the idea and hopes to reach a compromise with the administration, Hood said.
Academics
No writing competency exam if students pass English 103 and English 104 with an A- or higher: Hood said he met with Donald Whitaker, executive director of Institutional Effectiveness in the Office of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research, as well as Anna Priebe, coordinator of the Writing Competency Program. He said they were both against the idea because of differences of what is tested between entry-level English classes and the writing competency exam.
Computerize the writing competency exam: Hood said he spoke to Priebe about this item during the meeting. Hood said Priebe felt it would be impossible because of practical hurdles, which have to do with issues such as security, technology and space. Campus Alliance is currently working on proving otherwise and will present the information they are collecting to administrators once completed, he said.
Online forum for professor evaluations and class discussion: Hood said Yanders discussed this proposal with Terry King, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, who was receptive to the idea. If the platform item was implemented, Hood said, it would consist of an online form where students give their ID numbers, e-mail addresses, classes their professor is teaching, the professor's name and their comments or concerns. Once submitted, that information will be forwarded to the professor's department chairperson, college dean and ombudsperson, he said.
Multiculturalism
Student forum and discussion at the beginning of each semester about multiculturalism topics: Hood said the Multicultural Forum would take place in mid-November at Pruis Hall and the Multicultural Council, led by Secretary of Diversity Jessica Tindal, is sponsoring the event. It will consist of an educational portion as well as the open forum portion, and administrators have requested to attend, he said.
Highlight the Multicultural Center in the Ball State brochure: Hood said they were looking into whether some of the new brochures coming out this fall included the Multicultural Center, as some administrators have mentioned. If they do not, Hood said Campus Alliance would push to have it included in future brochures.
Pride
Sponsor a fan bus to major non-conference away football games: Hood said SGA, along with the University Program Board, sponsored a bus to the Ball State versus Indiana University football game. SGA covered the cost of the bus and $7 of each student's ticket, meaning students only had to pay $10 each for the trip, he said. SGA will have another bus trip for the football game against Central Michigan, and, he said, if Ball State made it to the MAC Championship, SGA might sponsor a bus to that game, depending on cost and logistics.
Sponsor pregame rallies for major home football games: Hood said SGA was sponsoring a pregame rally for the game on family weekend. The rally's exact details will come soon after more details are worked out, he said.
Organizational spotlights of the month in the Daily News and Student Senate: Hood said Press Secretary Jen Regnier designed the first organizational spotlight of the month for Homecoming. Currently Campus Alliance is visiting multiple organizations to promote various things, including the Organizational Spotlight of the Month, he said.
Unity
Implement a how-to section of the Ball State student Web site that would be a resource to students needing to know how to do something and what benefits they have as a Ball State student (drop a class, order food online, etc): Hood said the information included in the how-to book was currently unattainable because of a computer malfunction. Once the problem was fixed, Secretary of Information Technology Craig Jackson, Chief of Staff Shawn Meier and President Pro Tempore Jimmy Faroh will begin working with administrators to implement it on Ball State's Web site, he said.
Sponsor a Campus Resource Awareness Week that advertises all of the campus' resources: Hood said Strong and Secretary of Governance Ashley Ford have been planning this event since early summer. It will occur in Spring Semester, he said.
Support organizations financially by increasing the co-sponsorship money and raising awareness of funds: Hood said Campus Alliance increased SGA's co-sponsorship fund from $12,000 to $15,000 and is working on promoting use of that fund to organizations across campus.
Students
Have the university provide health benefits for graduate assistants: Hood said Campus Alliance met with Tom Morrison, associate vice president of Business Affairs, about this idea. He informed the slate there was already an affordable health care plan available to all students, including graduate assistants, but many students did not use the plan because it seemed "too good to be true," Hood said. Campus Alliance is going to advertise the plan and inform students it is not a scam so more students save money on their health care, he said.
Sell parking passes from Parking Services for one of the LaFollette Complex's parking lots: Hood said they have not started this platform item. He said Campus Alliance has determined that with the renovation of the Recreation Center taking away faculty parking spots and with that renovation occurring near LaFollette, the likelihood of being able to change a faculty lot at LaFollette to a student lot seems slim.
Bring a Chase ATM on campus: Hood said Campus Alliance met with Morrison and learned the university could not request a particular bank to put an ATM on campus. Instead, banks had to bid on locations to have ATMs on campus. Secretary of Justice Samantha Adamczewski is going to contact Chase, and request it researches ATM usage in the area and hopefully determine that bidding on a location more central to campus would be beneficial to it, he said.
Bring a Red Box movie rental station to campus: Hood said Adamczewski was researching other universities that have Red Box movie rental stations as well as discussing the possibility with Red Box.
Bring a quick print photo machine/photo service on campus (like Kodak kiosk): Hood said Adamczewski was determining if it was possible to incorporate a quick print photo machine into the existing services already offered by the Ball State Copy Center, located in the Ball State Bookstore.
Computerize night security system for bringing guests to the residence halls (no more yellow forms): Hood said Cozad and Faroh, have been discussing the idea with Alan Hargrave, director of Housing and Residence Life, who has been against the idea because of security and technology questions. Discussions are still ongoing with administrators on the idea, and Campus Alliance is researching possible compromises, Hood said.
Increase student fees $5 a semester and use money to bring big-name guest on campus: Hood said not much has been worked on regarding this item because budgets across campus are being cut and it is highly unlikely a student fee increase of this size will be approved. Hood said questions also remained on how to decide the most widely appealing artist to bring to campus.
Increase operation hours for residence hall fitness rooms: Hood said Cozad and Faroh discussed this item with Hargrave. The biggest concern is the lack of security around the fitness rooms after midnight and what would happen if someone was injured, Hood said. They are seeing if resident assistants could make fitness rooms part of their nightly rounds to ensure student safety.
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