The Student Senate began their weekly meeting as usual by starting with committee reports. Chairperson of the Academic Affairs Committee Varun Rao ’18 announced that the committee started to look into the Make Career Fair Day a Student Holiday petition. In their initial benchmarking, AAC found that most schools do not get a day off for the career fair, but that there are major-specific career fairs. Rao said more benchmarking is needed.
He also discussed the core curriculum survey, which will be used to gain student thoughts on the upcoming curriculum changes. The committee is particularly interested in the proposed summer reading requirements and proposed leadership requirement.
Facilities and Services Committee chairperson Austin Miller ’17 told the Senate that a shuttle routes survey would soon be making the rounds to gather information on shuttle changes. He also reminded the Senate that the Department of Public Safety Dinner would be taking place on November 16, and that Russell Sage Dining Hall will now be included with Commons Dining Hall as one of the the places DPS will be from 5:30–7:30 pm.
Justin Etzine ’18, of the Student Life Committee, discussed the Counseling Center survey which is now available at https://poly.rpi.edu/s/104jk. The survey aims to pinpoint areas for improvement within the Counseling Center. SLC is also looking into external referrals to accommodate more students.
Professor Amir Hirsa was the visiting member of the Faculty Senate. He spoke briefly about a meeting on November 15, from 4–5 pm in Sage 3303 to discuss core curriculum changes. He encouraged all students and faculty to attend the discussion.
The last item on the Senate’s agenda was to discuss changes to their bylaws. Graduate student Anthony Bishop asked some clarifying questions about the document, but most changes have been made outside of Senate’s weekly meeting. The bylaws will be voted on in the coming weeks.