On Tuesday, Nov. 4, SGA held their third Council of Organizations meeting. This meeting is required for every organization on campus that receives SGA funding, and should an organization fail to send a representative without an excuse, SGA’s bylaws allow the governing association to freeze funding for those organizations.
West Chester University President Weisenstein spoke to the students about the university’s current standing in the United States. His message was optimistic. He noted how West Chester University was “bucking the national trend” in terms of graduate student enrollment and how the university had moved up nine spots in U.S. news and world reports.
President Weisenstein also spoke of plans for the university, saying that the university has allocated up to $300 million for capital improvement, and that the average high school GPA to get into West Chester University has risen to the 3.5 – 3.7 zone. He also stressed that a great area of the university’s growth would take place through distance education.
During the question and answer session that followed, several students voiced their concerns on a variety of issues. Most issues were common ones, such as parking and off-campus housing. English Club president Matthew Holmes asked why there were chains surrounding the new academic quad, to which Weisenstein stated that while he did not know specifically. However, he stressed that the new Quad helps collect storm water, which reduces the tax the university must pay on storm water runoff.
Kathryn LeConey, the president of Graduate Student Association, raised one of the final concerns. She asked about developing a mechanism for graduate students to pay an optional SSI activities fee. Currently, graduate students cannot take part in various campus activities, such as intramural sports, since graduate students do not pay the activities fee. Recently, there has been a push to allow graduate students to pay an optional fee in order to allow them to do so.
Adam Farence is a fourth-year student majoring in history and French. He can be reached at AF764146@wcupa.edu.