Q: When is the voting period?
A: Tuesday, 4/29 at noon to Wednesday, 4/30 at noon! Go/vote!
Q: What is the SGA? What have they done this year?
A: SGA stands for Student Governement Association. It works to represent the students and make Middlebury a better place. What did it work on this year? A LOT. The new BiHall and CFA eateries, trying to get students credit for internships, creating go/MiddCourses, monitoring go/WeTheMiddKids, changing the AAL requirement, discussing how much the Student Activities Fee should go up by each year, and so much more.
Q: How is the SGA structured?
A: The SGA has 17 elected positions:
1 President
1 SCOCC (Student Co-Chair of the Community Council)
2 First-Year Senators
2 Sophomore Senators
2 Junior Senators
2 Senior Senators
2 Feb Senators
5 Commons Senators <- What I'm running for
[The presdient also selects a cabinet.]
[There are also a TON of committees.]
Every Sunday at 7:00 the SGA Senators and President sit around a table in the Crest Room and discuss issues, propose bills and pass bills. (Fun Fact: There is a gavel and everybody goes by "Senator Custer", "Senator LaBarba", etc.)
Q: How is Commons Senator different than Sophomore Senator?
A: The Cook Commons Senators' constituents are the members of Cook Commons, meaning that instead of representing only Sophomores, I represent Cook. At SGA meetings I have the same right to speaking and voting rights. The main difference is that in addition to Sunday Senate Meetings I also attend Cook Commons Meetings.
Q: How many people are running for each position?
A: The ONLY contested race in the entire election is for Sophomore Senator! (Joy, Karina, Brandi and Steven are running.) Otherwise, there are only two people running for Junior and Senior senator, and one person running for SCOCC, President and each of the 5 Commons Senators. You're right, it's absolutely ridiculous!
Q: What is the Community Council?
A: It's a group of faculty, students and staff that get together on Wednesdays for 1.5 hours and discuss and vote on issues pertaining to non-academic life. Dean Shirley Collado and Luke Carroll Brown (current SCOCC) lead the conversation. This semester we discussed financial aid, how to reduce move-out waste, whether Middlebury needs video surveillance, the new indoor track, how to improve student-faculty-staff relations, and much, much more. It was awesome because I met and shared ideas with people like Tim Parsons, head tree manager, Chris Thompson of Public Safety, Professors Will Nash and Allison Stanger, and other faculty and staff that I wouldn't normally have the opportunity to talk to. If you are interested in how Middlebury works, I highly recommend serving. Next year Ben Bogin is going to be SCOCC - learn what he wants to talk about at go/bb.
Q: What is the Finance Committe?
A: Every student at Midd pays a $395 Student Activities Fee, which is pooled into the $1M Student Activites Fund that the SGA uses to fund all student activites on campus. WRMC, Rugby, AAA, Equestrian Club, you name it. The SGA created the Finance Committe to allocate the money in a fair and equitable manner. Every Wednesday it meets with student organizations to listen to their budget proposals or new money requests. All clubs get funding through the SGA FC - chances are if you're a club leader you've met with the Finance Committee.