by Erin Turner | Apr 6, 2015 | News Slider
From water bottle stations, to the cost of summer tuition at Lipscomb, the 2015-2016 Student Government Association candidates covered a variety of topics at the Presidential Debate Monday night in Shamblin Theater. Moderator Madeline Smith opened up the night by asking the senatorial candidates funny questions that were Tweeted out by audience members. Vice Presidential candidates Ezra Fritz, Lauren Gardiner, Hannah Passamonte, Jackson Smith and David Villacorta took the stage to share their ideas for the coming school year. The presidential portion of the debate began with a series of questions. Q: “If you could implement one major policy change at Lipscomb what would it be? A: Presidential candidate Julia Allen said she would change the way that tuition works. “I would like to see fixed tuition — for Lipscomb students to be able to stay for all four years,” Allen said. A: Presidential candidate Margaret Rox said she would also like to see a tuition lock for current students. “If we can’t have a tuition lock, I would at least like to see people’s scholarship increase with the tuition,” Rox said. While tuition increases each each, Rox said that scholarships don’t. She said that it would be more fair for scholarships to follow the same trend as rising tuition. A: Presidential candidate Jordan Beale said she is passionate about Lipscomb’s community, and she said she believes housing is a big part of the community. “I’d really like to see some greater opportunities for upperclassmen here on campus — maybe have more open dorm hours, a little bit more autonomy on those choices, a little bit more openness to moving off campus,” Beale said. Q: “What...
by Erin Turner | Apr 4, 2015 | Opinion
Open Letter to the Student Body: My name is Ezra Fritz, and I am running for Vice President of the Student Government Association 2015-2016. I am a junior Mechanical Engineering major from Kingston Springs, Tennessee. Having had the privilege of serving on SGA during these past two years, and having had the trust placed in me by the SGA executives to serve as Communications Committee Chair this past academic year; I believe I have both the leadership experience and the drive to make a good Vice President, and to bring strong and competent leadership to SGA. This will ensure that we get projects accomplished that you, the students, raise your voice about and care about deeply. One potential problem that I noticed as Communications Chair and have worked to lessen, was that there seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between SGA and the student body; and I would be honored if I could continue my work of helping to bridge that gap, as the next Vice President. One example of the many small projects my Communications Committee undertook this year to aid in creating good communication was to create a place online where you can go and see a profile picture, some information and a contact email for every member of SGA. We created the “Meet-Your-SGA” tab on our SGA webpage so that you can get directly into contact with any one of your representatives, as well as the SGA executives if you have a question, comment or concern. I also helped to organize the information tables as well as our survey, both of which have given many...
by Erin Turner | Apr 2, 2015 | News Slider
The Student Government Association Presidential Debate is set for Monday, April 6 at 5 p.m. in Shamblin Theater. Elections will be held on Tuesday, April 7 in Bennett Campus Center. Students will be able to vote for executive positions and senators from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Runoffs will be held Thursday, April 9. Students will only be able to vote for the senators in their class. Five senators are chosen for each class. Elections for Senator-at-large will be held Tuesday, April 14. To ask the presidential candidates questions, students can Tweet using the hashtag “LUdebate.” The following students are candidates in the 2015-2016 SGA election: President: Julia Allen Jordan Beale Margaret Rox Vice President: Ezra Fritz Lauren Gardiner Hannah Passamonte Jackson Smith David Villacorta Secretary: Jamie Keiser Treasurer: Adrian Ricketts Senior Senator: Zach Clemens Stephen D. Grady Brennan Johnson Cole Meador Anne-Claire Smith Kendall Young Junior Senator: Anna Cannone Philip Grimsley Caroline Hensley Carter Hilliard Grant Mathis Megan Neuenschwander Katie Scholl Sophomore Senator: Sinney Chan Brandon Cunningham Matt Gibson Luis Hernandez Destiny S. Mhishi Megan Roberts Alleah Thompson Grayson Webber Senator-at-large: Rachael Langston Caleb...
by Janice Ng | Mar 14, 2014 | News Slider
The semester may quickly be drawing to an end, but Lipscomb’s Student Government Association is still in planning mode, working with administration to govern students more effectively. “Something that we’re currently working on internally is that we’re trying to revise the constitution,” SGA President Andrew Hunt said. “We have found that Lipscomb has changed a lot in the past few years,” Hunt said. “We feel like we can better work with the administration.” The constitution was last revised in 2010. “Things have changed a lot even since then,” he said. “We’re trying to restructure SGA.” Hunt, a senior and corporate management major, also said SGA is working with the provost’s office to revamp certain majors. “We recently sent out some surveys to students to see what the demand for each major is,” Hunt said. “They are some departments that are more adult study heavy, like business, [law, justice and society], social work, where classes are only offered at night.” Hunt says SGA wants to give a chance for students to be able to get more involved in night activities. “We’re working with the provost to see if there’s any way we can take students out of [night classes] by offering the classes during the day as well,” Hunt said. Some SGA plans are already in motion, such as adding a new printer to the Ezell Center. “Hopefully, after spring break, we’ll have a printer in Ezell,” Hunt said. “We’ve been working with a lot of the departments in Ezell to see who can fund it. We’re trying to find sponsorship for that directly.” SGA is also working on meal...
