{"586770":{"#nid":"586770","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Throwback Thursday: Student Government Association\u0027s Fall Semester Highlights ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWith the academic year half over, leaders of the Student Government Association (SGA) are more than halfway through their terms.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe leaders recently shared a few things they accomplished in the fall and what they hope to tackle during the remainder of the spring semester.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch3\u003EUndergraduate SGA\u003C\/h3\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;My favorite accomplishments from the fall semester were when SGA worked with campus to welcome our first \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/excel.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EEXCEL\u003C\/a\u003E member, and the re-development of the Freshman Leadership Organization, FreshGA,\u0026rdquo; said Nagela Nukuna, undergraduate SGA president. Excel is a four-year certificate program for students with mild intellectual and developmental disabilities.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESome accomplishments highlighted in the undergraduate SGA\u0026rsquo;s End of Semester Report include: \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cul\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003EOn Oct. 6, 2016, SGA held a town hall on student policies regarding sexual misconduct. \u0026nbsp;Vice President and Dean of Students John\u0026nbsp;Stein, Associate Dean and Director of Student Integrity Bonnie Weston, Director of Compliance Programs Burns Newsome, and Victim-Survivor Advocate Jennifer Gagen were present to answer questions from the campus community. [View the current \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/policylibrary.gatech.edu\/student-affairs\/student-sexual-misconduct-policy-change\u0022\u003ESexual Misconduct Policy\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/policylibrary.gatech.edu\/student-affairs\/code-conduct\u0022\u003ECode of Conduct\u003C\/a\u003E.]\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003ESGA worked with the Student Athletic Advisory Board to promote its events and increase communication between the general campus and student athletes. SGA representatives also met with leadership from the \u003Cem\u003ETechnique\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003EA social media campaign was developed to promote the Counseling Center\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/endsuicide.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ETech Ends Suicide Together initiative. \u003C\/a\u003EThe initiative represents both an aspirational goal and a call to action to create a linkage of programs and support that work together to end suicide at Georgia Tech. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003EChief of Staff Ben Nickel headed the Home for the Holidays project, which paired international students with local members of the Georgia Tech community, who hosted the students over Thanksgiving. In 2016, 117 students were paired with 79 hosts.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003EVice President of Campus Services Sujay Peramanu worked with Parking and Transportation Services on completion of the Tech Square Express project, which added a bus route from the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons to Tech Square.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003EVice President of External Affairs Sara Dada led the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WreckTheVote\/\u0022\u003E#WreckTheVote Campaign\u003C\/a\u003E to encourage students to register to vote before the 2016 presidential election. More than 300 students checked into the event and were reminded to register and to vote on election day.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\u003C\/ul\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENukuna has high hopes for spring semester. Her personal goals are to find ways to make course instructor opinion survey (CIOS) data more effective for students and faculty, set the groundwork for a research career fair, continue work regarding sexual misconduct issues, and create greater transparency between SGA and the student body.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch3\u003EGraduate SGA\u003C\/h3\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPresident of Graduate SGA David Scripka said,\u0026nbsp;\u0026quot;Last fall Grad SGA worked hard to address a number of different issues that graduate students face. In particular we wanted to address\u0026nbsp;two major sources of stress for graduate students: qualifying exams and finances.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGraduate SGA, along with\u0026nbsp;Graduate Studies and the Office of the Provost, created a task force to better understand the state of qualifying exams across campus. Graduate students must pass qualifying exams to begin working on their doctoral dissertation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGraduate SGA also worked with Health and Well-Being, Campus Services, and Undergraduate SGA to start a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hwb.gatech.edu\/finance\u0022\u003EFinancial Adviser pilot program\u003C\/a\u003E. This program allows students to schedule an appointment with a financial advisor for confidential and individualized financial services including general financial planning, budgeting, debt management, investment planning, and tax strategies. Students are encouraged to take advantage of free advising from Feb. 14 through\u0026nbsp;April 13. Appointments can be scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in room 204, Campus Recreation Center.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis semester, Graduate SGA hopes to gather feedback from graduate students about their experiences with the Student Blue Health Insurance to prepare for potential changes in that program in the near future. The perspective of graduate students will be an essential component of that process, and Graduate SGA will work hard to ensure that their voice is heard.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EUndergraduate and graduate SGA also recently worked together to pass a joint statement related to the White House executive order on immigration. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0BxT-AsGLpUcUMDVuZjJyUzZqcjg\/view\u0022\u003ERead the full statement here\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EStay up-to-date on undergraduate SGA\u0026rsquo;s spring activities by checking its \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GTSGA\/\u0022\u003EFacebook page\u003C\/a\u003E, attending SGA office hours Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to\u0026nbsp;3 p.m., and Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Student Center SGA office, or going to an Undergraduate House of Representatives meeting on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. in Room 117, Flag Building. For Graduate SGA updates, visit its \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/sga.gatech.edu\/g\/\u0022\u003Ewebsite\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;or\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GTgradSGA\u0022\u003EFacebook page\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Student Government Association (SGA) had a productive fall semester that led to the accomplishments of many major goals of the organization. Here are some projects that stood out in the End of Semester Report. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Student Government Association (SGA) had a productive fall semester that led to the accomplishments of many major goals of the organization. Here are some projects that stood out in the End of Semester Report.  "}],"uid":"30867","created_gmt":"2017-02-09 13:07:46","changed_gmt":"2017-02-13 21:25:18","author":"Julia Faherty","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-02-09T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2017-02-09T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"521771":{"id":"521771","type":"image","title":"SGA","body":null,"created":"1459972800","gmt_created":"2016-04-06 20:00:00","changed":"1475895291","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:51","alt":"SGA","file":{"fid":"206061","name":"sga.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sga.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sga.png","mime":"image\/png","size":383340,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/sga.png?itok=ARmVKeik"}},"586766":{"id":"586766","type":"image","title":"SGA Week ","body":null,"created":"1485972081","gmt_created":"2017-02-01 18:01:21","changed":"1485972081","gmt_changed":"2017-02-01 18:01:21","alt":"","file":{"fid":"223613","name":"Screen Shot 2017-02-01 at 12.50.00 PM.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-01%20at%2012.50.00%20PM.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-01%20at%2012.50.00%20PM.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1884098,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Screen%20Shot%202017-02-01%20at%2012.50.00%20PM.png?itok=tRApbenp"}},"582077":{"id":"582077","type":"image","title":"Nagela and Shane","body":null,"created":"1475589119","gmt_created":"2016-10-04 13:51:59","changed":"1477056300","gmt_changed":"2016-10-21 13:25:00","alt":"","file":{"fid":"221884","name":"Zg_M4xbdC2C0v1L4JqS6DdHAy_LfTyvSuoIPBen8Tvo.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Zg_M4xbdC2C0v1L4JqS6DdHAy_LfTyvSuoIPBen8Tvo.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Zg_M4xbdC2C0v1L4JqS6DdHAy_LfTyvSuoIPBen8Tvo.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":229460,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Zg_M4xbdC2C0v1L4JqS6DdHAy_LfTyvSuoIPBen8Tvo.jpg?itok=vx33-lbJ"}},"583215":{"id":"583215","type":"image","title":"David Scripka","body":null,"created":"1477583904","gmt_created":"2016-10-27 15:58:24","changed":"1477584355","gmt_changed":"2016-10-27 16:05:55","alt":"David Scripka","file":{"fid":"222328","name":"davidscripka.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/davidscripka.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/davidscripka.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":676740,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/davidscripka.jpg?itok=1O__Ia5k"}}},"media_ids":["521771","586766","582077","583215"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/sga.gatech.edu","title":"Student Government Association"}],"groups":[],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"166922","name":"sga"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"},{"id":"1556","name":"undergraduate"},{"id":"166847","name":"students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:stucomm@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJulia Faherty\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["stucomm@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}