House of Reps prepares for fall semester
Members to focus on increasing student involvement
By Hemi Ahluwalia
staff reporter
Election results are in and representatives are ready to use their elected titles to do something good for the student body, said Chelsea Hudson, a second-term Colby representative and sophomore political science major.
House of Student Representatives held semester elections Wednesday to
choose representatives for residence halls, commuter and graduate students.
Greek and commuter election results were delayed because of the long holiday weekend. At least two new representatives were elected Monday night.
The number of elected representatives is based on the population of each residence hall. Since the number of students living on campus this semester has increased, there will be 44 student representatives from the halls, said Sara Donaldson, vice president of House. The number of residence hall representatives from last year could not be obtained because past records have been deleted from the House files.
“I think that we will have a good variety of people this semester,” Donaldson said.
Jason Ruth, a freshman business major, will serve as one of four representatives
from Clark Hall.
“I am really interested in the task ahead and all that I can do to
make the campus better for the student body,” Ruth said.
Student involvement is one of the major focuses of the House this semester, said Grant Hewitt, a freshman political science major.
“I think that if we have each representative bring three people to every House meeting, we will be able to bring different points to the table,” Hudson said.
Rhonda Dickens, hall director of Jarvis Hall, said the lack of student involvement among upperclassmen is due to prior involvement in other activities.
Hudson also said there is a problem with the communication between House
and the student body.
“What House stands for is the personal needs of students, and I think
that House attending all-hall meetings will be more personal,” Hudson
said.
The House is currently proposing a plan which would have members of the executive board assigned to each residence hall. Each member would then attend the all-hall meetings and answer any questions that students have, Donaldson said.
All of the elected representatives are required to attend the House meetings held every Tuesday in the Student Center, Donaldson said.
“There is a feeling when you walk into House, the feeling of making a difference, and that is what I want to do,” Hudson said.
First house meeting to discuss budgets for new committees
By Hemi Ahluwalia
skiff reporter
New representatives will be sworn in and old ones welcomed back at tonight’s House of Student Representatives meeting.
“We will also do a recap of the House retreat that was held on Saturday,” said Brian Casebolt, chairman of the academic affairs committee.
The retreat gave the representatives a chance to get into small groups, voice concerns and brainstorm solutions to the concerns of the student body, said Sara Donaldson, vice president of House.
“At the first meeting we will designate a list of objectives that we would like to accomplish for the semester,” Donaldson said.
The first House meeting will also be a chance for people to learn how House works, said Ashley Edge, House administrative assistant.
During the new business segment of the meeting, House representatives will discuss an amendment to the budget for the Student Government Association, Donaldson said.
“We will discuss reallocating the money for the new committees that were formed last semester,” Donaldson said.
The three new committees are University Affairs, Residential
Concerns and Commuter Concerns.
The amendments that will be brought to the table at tonight’s meeting
will not be debated until next week’s meeting, she said.
At each of the meetings a guest speaker will talk to the House about future events on campus. Today’s guest speakers will be players and coaches from the football team.
“They will talk about the first home game and make sure the representatives know how important it is to get the student body involved in the games,” Donaldson said.
The meetings will give House a chance to listen to students and make an effort to solve their problems, Donaldson said. Students are encouraged to attend this meeting so they will be informed on the House’s plans for the semester, she said.
“There will be a question and answer period after all
of the resolutions and for the football team,” she said.
The meeting is at 5 p.m. in Student Center Room 222.
“We feel that if the student body does not get involved in the campus, it is irrelevant for the House to do any work,” Casebolt said. “We want to know what the students want so we can make an effort to help.”
Hemi Ahluwalia
h.ahluwalia@student.tcu.edu
Dependents of faculty, staff receive benefits
Program provides tuition aid at more than 480
universities
By Angie Chang
staff reporter
Through the Tuition Exchange Program, dependents of TCU faculty and staff can now use tuition benefits at more than 480 colleges and universities.
John Weis, assistant vice chancellor for human resources, said this program will provide more options for dependents and will diversify TCU’s campus by bringing in more students from other states.
“The Tuition Exchange Program has been popular throughout the nation, and it is a great benefit for tuition assistance,” Weis said.
Participating colleges in Texas include Baylor University, Texas Lutheran University, Texas Wesleyan University and Trinity University. The program also has participating schools in 44 other states and one in the United Kingdom.
Ken Morgan, co-chairman of the Retirement, Insurance and Benefits Committee, said the program was first introduced to the committee in April 1999 by Weis and Chancellor Michael Ferrari. It was approved last summer by the Chancellor’s Cabinet, Morgan said.
“The Tuition Exchange Program broadens potential for dependents
of employees of TCU,” Morgan said.
Mike Scott, director of scholarships and financial aid, said TCU will
only be able to grant four scholarships this first year.
“Obtaining these scholarships will be a competitive process,” Scott said.
Scott said the application process for this program will consist of two parts.
“Applicants will need to go through TCU first,” Scott said. “Candidates will be picked based on how long their parent has worked for TCU. From there, they can apply to any of the participating schools, and they will be looked at academically.”
Scott said any dependent of a TCU faculty or staff member is eligible to apply. The faculty or staff member must have worked for more than a year for 30 hours a week to be eligible for tuition benefits assistance.
Scott said dependents can also use their tuition benefits at other Texas universities if they applied at TCU and were not accepted. This option will be available in addition to the Tuition Exchange Program.
Scott said before the Tuition Exchange Program, TCU had a reciprocal agreement between Baylor and Southern Methodist University that was similar to the program.
“It was a fairly popular idea,” Scott said. “But we had more students coming to TCU than we had students going to Baylor or SMU, so the exchange was ended.”
Mike Sacken, a professor of education, said his son will have the opportunity to think about other schools as a result of TCU joining the exchange program.
“I think it’s great to give people that many choices in any issue,” Sacken said. “I think this program will open a door to options that my son had not looked into before.”
Weis said the program works on an import/export exchange system, and the participating university must import as many students as it exports. Scholarships will be granted for undergraduate study only and can be for first-year or transfer students..
House aspires to be more involved in student life
Retreat gets representatives ready for new year
By Kristina Iodice
staff reporter
About 40 students woke up early and spent the day getting to know parliamentary procedure and other new representatives at the House of Student Representatives retreat Saturday.
Parliamentarian Scott McCray said the retreat was a chance for new and returning representatives to focus for the semester and learn House procedures.
“They
brainstormed for ideas,” he said. “It gave people direction
for where they want to go and also told people how they need to do it.”
Some of the issues raised at the meeting included apathy on campus, movement toward a cashless campus and parking.
“Parking is something that is a huge issue and is going to be dealt with by the House because it’s such a considerable concern of the entire student body,” said Brian Casebolt, chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee.
He also said the main focus for the semester is representation. The members of House want to make sure students feel ownership of the student government and can approach the representatives.
A constituency day has been planned for Oct. 4. Representatives will listen to student concerns in dormitory lobbies and in the commuter lounge in the Student Center, said Sara Donaldson, vice president of the House.
All representatives will begin wearing purple buttons saying “House,” so students know who they can talk to.
Jenny Hinton, a freshman premajor and Colby representative, said she wants to be accessible so people know where to go with concerns and complaints.
“It increases our visibility and shows the student who they can speak with to get their ideas and views heard,” McCray said.
This is the first year an extensive retreat involving training has been done, Donaldson said.
“Last semester we could have done so much more and for some reason we didn’t,” she said. “I think it had a lot to do with lack of training and lack of knowledge of what we do, how we do it and why.”
As part of the training, the representatives who attended the retreat practiced parliamentary procedure with a mock bill to understand the process.
“Seeing and doing are two very different things,” said Cye Fischer, a senior history major and Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community representative. “Hopefully once House starts it will be much smoother.”
McCray said because of the training, mHouse.ore people will have a better idea of what’s going on and be more inclined to participate. It should make the House more effective in fulfilling the student body’s needs, he said.
The retreat also gave representatives a chance to meet the people they will be working with.
“Another really important aspect of our retreat was not only to get people to be knowledgeable about the organization they were just selected into, but also to get people comfortable with everyone else in the organization,” Donaldson said.
McCray said House is ready to do the work that is necessary in order to have a successful semester.
“Our emphasis this semester especially is going out of this room, getting the information and not being so contained that we don’t really know what the students want,” Donaldson said. “It’s not what we want, it’s what the students want to get done.”
Kristina Iodice
kkiodice@student.tcu.edu.