By Karen Blakelock and Brenda Winn
Staff Writers
On January 28, the Hill News sent out a survey requesting student opinions on the Thelomathesian Society. Only 21% of students expressed that they fully understand how the SLU Student Government works. Here’s a quick rundown:
The Executive Board is made up of six members. They preside over meetings of the Thelomathesian Society and serve as the student voice in front of the Board of Trustees and the Administration. The Junior Executive Board is comprised of eight Committee Chairs covering all aspects of campus life from Academic Affairs, to Environmental Conservation, to Canton Community Outreach. The Thelmo Senate is made up of thirty-nine students. Senators serve on committees and vote on contingencies requesting money from SLUSAF (something Chairs and members of the Executive Board aren’t allowed to do). SLUSAF stands for St. Lawrence University Student Activities Fund and each year, a portion of tuition is allocated to it. All of Thelmo (Executive Board, Committee Chairs, and Senators) participate in weekly meetings to discuss, debate, and ultimately allow Senators to vote on contingency requests (i.e. who gets money and who doesn’t).
Beginning this semester, a new Executive Board has taken over the Hannon Room. Ryan Orvis ’17 wields the gavel as student body President while Sarah Evarts ’17 and Christopher Di Mezzo ’18 play the roles of VP. The Hill News sat down with members of the Executive Board and gave them the chance to respond to the survey sent out earlier this semester.
Student responses to the question “How satisfied are you with Thelmo’s overall productivity?” range drastically. 11% shared that they were not at all satisfied while only 15% were extremely satisfied. This means that roughly less than 400 students on this campus are pleased with the work that the Student Government is doing. A potential cause for dissatisfaction could be that many students aren’t aware of what Thelmo actually does, which seems likely since 46% of students who took the survey revealed that they possess some level of confusion concerning Thelmo’s role on campus.
The discrepancies apparent between the most informed students and the least are concerning, as many who took the survey felt that Thelmo should work on making themselves more accessible to students while others expressed that the responsibility to remain informed falls on the students themselves, “It would be great if more students would get involved in Thelmo. The people that don’t understand Thelmo are the people that aren’t bothering to look for answers.” In comparison, others shared suggestions that the organization should do more to educate students. One response recommended that Thelmo provide a “better explanation to freshmen about how Thelmo functions and how to get involved.” While another requested that members of the Society should “reach out to those not in Thelmo and educate them” citing that, “If you’re not in Thelmo it’s hard to be educated on what’s going on.”
Despite the knowledge gap between the most and least informed students, 21% of survey-takers selected that they were not at all optimistic about Thelmo’s work in the coming year. On the flip side, 48% expressed some level of optimism. One responder wrote, “I like that they always surprise us (because honestly everyone expects them to do nothing) and then [they] end up doing some cool things” while another student responded to the same question with, “[I don’t like] much [about Thelmo] since they really don’t really make any great changes.” Personal views on Thelmo aside, it is apparent that the student body is divided when it comes to opinions on Student Government. Here’s what the Executive Board had to say after looking over the survey results.
Vice President of Senate Affairs, Christopher Di Mezzo ’18 stated that he was “disappointed, but not surprised” at what students shared. This is because the complaints in the survey are nothing new, they’re the same ones that each executive board experiences. Sarah Evarts ’17, Vice President of University Relations shared, “what’s hard for us, so much of what we do is going into the five to ten year plan, so we won’t even be here to see most of what we do. Students don’t realize that the calendar change that happened this year was actually probably approved years ago.” President Ryan Orvis ’17 explained the process: the Thelmo Executive Board, namely Orvis and Student Delegate to the Board of Trustees, Matt Bauer ’16 are responsible for gathering student opinion and reporting to the Board of Trustees to help them understand what students are thinking. Once the Board accepts something proposed by the student representatives, it is put in the long-term plan. Simply put, these things take time. “We’re doing such big picture things that students don’t care about. They want to know about waffles [in the pub]” mentioned Thelmo Secretary Cassie Christopher ’17.
Another concern that is often expressed deals with transparency. At the mention of the word, Orvis rolls his eyes. This is a complaint the Executive Board is very familiar with, and something students brought up in the survey results. “Every time someone says transparency in Thelmo I think, we’re in a glass room. Literally we’re sitting behind glass” says Di Mezzo. One student responded to the question, “what would you like to see changed about Thelmo?” with, “making sure people understand Thelmo should be a primary duty, not a secondary goal.” While this is true, the Thelomathesian Society Senate, which convenes every Wednesday at 7pm in the Hannon Room, has meetings open to any student looking to attend and, according to Orvis, “we give [students] the ability to be informed,” but they have to want to be. Evarts feels similarly, “if we don’t realize students have the questions, we can’t give them the answers.”
Overall, the entire Executive Board shared a similar thought; they want to hear what students have to say. “We can change little things, like the coffee. That was [Student Life Chair] Maya Williams ’16 through Thelmo. And [VP of University Relations] Sarah asking for Fruit Loops from Dining Services” says Di Mezzo.
Regardless of how hard the Executive Board works, they are only 11% of Thelmo. The entire institution of Student Government is made up of Senators and Chairs in addition to the Executive Board. But how much do they actually do? Presently, there are 39 Senators. As of right now, survey results show that the SLU student body is not pleased with the Thelmo Senate. “There’s hardly an original thought in Thelmo coming from the Senate” read one response. “When everyone in the Senate votes yes for a contingency on everything then you know how useless it is to be a Senator” shared another.
When asked, the Executive board admitted that Senators don’t do much apart from their Wednesday night meeting of the Senate. Every week, Senators have the power to give away money from the Student Activities Fund (something all students are required to pay into through tuition). “We understand that it might look intimidating… Last semester there was one meeting where the Senate passed over 20,000 dollars in student funds. Senators have a lot of power. The student body should hold them to [a high standard because of] that. They are spending your money so don’t be afraid to go up to them and ask questions, have conversations” explained Orvis. One student shared a similar thought in the survey results, “The pressure should not be just on the Executive Board, Senators are interviewed for the position to prove that they can properly mediate, yet each year no senator rises to the occasion.”
Other major concerns from the survey cited that other deserving clubs should get more money, not just the OC. According to Evarts, clubs submit their own budgets for approval. The OC gets the most money because that’s the budget they propose. That being said, any student with a good idea can come to Thelmo and ask for money, it doesn’t have to come through a larger club or organization.
According to the survey, more than half of the student body feels that Thelmo is committed to making changes on campus, the Executive Board shared some things they’re working on this coming semester. According to Di Mezzo, “[Thelmo’s] starting a commission between all advocacy groups on campus. Anyone can come to the Hannon room for an open discussion about how we want to deal with sexual assault on campus.” Evarts shared that they’re working to get a breakdown of tuition spending to allow students to stay informed about the costs of their education. Additionally, the exec board will continue to work on the Ice Rink, something that was started last semester under the Appenzeller Administration and should last for ten years. “All the funding came from Thelmo, and it was voted on by the Senate” said Evarts. This is the kind of big picture things they’re working on, ones that benefit the entire student body for long periods of time.
When asked if there was one final thing they’d like to share with the student body, the response was unanimous, “Emails, office hours, come talk to us. Don’t hide behind a survey. Come in angry if you’re angry. We will sit down and talk to you about it. We’re here. Christopher lives in the office. Knock on the door.”