SA meeting minutes

3/20/13 7:00pm

 

The following were noted at the most recent meeting of the SA on Mar. 18. 

SA Internal Vice President Nathan Liu announced that applications for 2013-14 Best Practices project leaders are available at sa.rice.edu/appointed2013 and are due by 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 29. 

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Undergraduate Representative to the University Standing Committee on Admissions Eric Pai presented results from a recent survey of 57 students identified as leaders across campus. The survey included information on students' leadership involvement in high school and at Rice, how leadership factored into their application to Rice and students' changing perceptions of leadership after coming to Rice. Pai said this project may be used to enhance Rice admissions processes and may later be expanded in the form of a survey to the whole student body. Send any questions, comments or suggestions to Eric Pai (eyp1@rice.edu) and SA External Vice President Ravi Sheth (ravi.sheth@rice.edu). 

Brown College junior Shaurya Agarwal introduced a resolution about Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. The legislation provides recommendations to the Center for Teaching Excellence to improve the quality of teaching at Rice. Specific points include actively developing current professors' teaching skills, improving faculty-student mentorship and adding a student liaison to the CTE. SA President Yoonjin Min said the Student Senate will vote on the resolution on April 1. Send any questions or comments to shaurya.agarwal@rice.edu. 

Min discussed proposed amendments to the resolution regarding the add/drop deadline introduced last week. The amendments clarify that students only prefer a fine to a W on their transcripts if a change is to be made, and the consequences for dropping after the add deadline would only apply to oversubscribed classes. Min said the Senate will vote on the resolution at its March 25 meeting. Once a resolution is supported by the student body as determined a majority vote, student representatives to the Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum will present this resolution to the CUC as a change the students would support. The Faculty Senate will make the final decision on this issue. 

? ?Lovett College Senator Christian Neal introduced proposed changes for the 2014 Commencement Ceremony. Instead of one three-and-a-half-hour Saturday ceremony with all undergraduate, graduate and doctorate students, names would be read at a separate undergraduate ceremony on Friday evening, and there would be a half-hour plenary session on Saturday morning with addresses by the commencement speaker and student speakers. This plan is still in its early stages and will most likely be introduced formally in the fall. An outline of the proposed changes will be available at sa.rice.edu. 

The SA will next meet March 25 in Farnsworth Pavilion at 9 p.m. 

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