Students logged into their Sakai accounts Monday to find a new Thelomathesian Society tab listed on their homepage. Headed by Thelmo President Tinga Adiang ’20 the site will give Laurentians greater access to the initiatives of their student government. I sat down with President Adiang to discuss Thelmo’s most recent development.
Kunin: Why did you create the site?
Adiang: A lot of times Thelmo’s resources aren’t being displayed, and we wanted to create a system where you have Thelmo at your fingertips. Every student uses Sakai, so you no longer have to go out of your way to go to Thelmo. Now it’s literally right there.
Kunin: How long has this project been in progress?
Adiang: For my candidacy, one of the biggest issues was making sure Thelmo was accessible to students. That was the big thing I campaigned on and I wanted to stay true to my words as much as possible. Now we’re at the forefront of things. Now students can think of Thelmo as its own separate entity.
Every student who comes to St. Lawrence is a member of the Thelomathesian Society. How do you think I was able to add everyone to the Sakai page? It’s ingrained in the Thelmo constitution. Now you are Thelmo.
Kunin: What excites you most about the site?
Adiang: The meeting minutes are a great feature. Our Secretary, Hannah Gregory ’20, does such a great job. We record every Thelmo meeting and she’s sometimes up until 1 or 2 in the morning by herself writing our minutes. She does such a great job and I feel like students should know.
The website also allows you to get to know your Chair Members and their responsibilities through their profile pages. Each chairperson’s profile is at your fingertips along with their responsibilities listed in terms of the Thelmo Constitution. A lot of times students come to me with questions because they don’t know exactly where to go. The site is a great way to make sure everyone is on the same page at all times.
Kunin: Was it difficult creating the site?
Adiang: The thing I didn’t anticipate was adding students to the software. We had to do it slowly to not shutdown the system. Originally it seemed like it wasn’t possible given the number of people we were adding. We didn’t want to overwhelm the system.
Huge shoutout to Jim Forney. He’s the Senior Educational Technologist and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him. Chris Rich ’18 was also a huge help last semester. He and I were talking one night and thought “we have all this information, how can we share it?”
Kunin: Have any other schools’ student governments ever done something like this?
Adiang: I’m not sure. I would say that we’re ahead of our time. We’re clearly doing stuff that other student governments aren’t doing. The mere fact that we have so much say about a lot of things like sitting in on trustee meetings, that’s not a common thing. Not every student government provides this.
After Oct. 25 you’ll actually see a new tab in the Sakai page labeled Trustee Info filled with the most important information from the Board of Trustees meetings.
Kunin: What does the future hold for the Thelmo Sakai page?
Adiang: I was thinking about how we could make the Sakai page so it lasts. When I leave, I want the next executive-board to be able to take over. The layout is made so they’ll easily be able to change it. The website will always be evolving. It’s never going to be stagnant.
Kunin: Is there anything else you would like to tell the St. Lawrence student body?
Adiang: Thelmo is definitely an organization you’d want to be a part of and supportive of. Whenever a student comes in I literally drop everything and try to help them. We’re really trying to be as supportive of everyone on campus.