On Thursday, January 8, the Chatham Student Government (CSG) convened their first meeting of the Spring 2015 semester.
Though there were several absences due to illness, those in attendance had much to discuss about the coming semester.
The meeting began with a presentation from Dr. Sean McGreevey, Assistant Dean for Career Development, in regards to the Circle of 6 phone application, in which Chatham University is considering participating.
After briefly plugging his financial wellness course, McGreevey went on to explain the purpose of the Circle of 6.
“How do we promote bystander intervention,” he asked the Senate, “and how do we promote healthy behavior?”
His answer relates to this application, which people can use to quickly and subtly alert their friends that they are in an unsafe situation, through a number of preset messages that can be sent out to a group of six friends with nothing more than two clicks.
He went on to say that Chatham will be hosting three, hour-long training sessions for the application on the evenings of January 21, January 27, and February 2, and reminded the CSG that students can register for these on MyChatham. The training sessions are part of a study by the counseling psychology department, to gauge students’ reactions to the application.
“We just want to put some thought into this process, if this is the right move for [Chatham],” he said
He went on to say that the “magic” may not be in the application itself, but in students telling their friends–“lets have a conversation about putting you in my Circle of 6.”
After his presentation McGreevey passed the floor to Meg Scanlon and Lynzy Groves, co-chair people of the Chatham Relay for Life committee, who asked the Senate to brainstorm ideas for how to get people involved in the event.
“Relay for Life was designed to unite communities to fight a problem,” said Groves. “Many people don’t have to opportunity to raise their voice when something matters,” she continued. “You have a responsibility to raise your voice”
During the brief discussion that followed, Skylar Wilcha, Class of 2015 president brought up the point that, “people have a misconception about non-profits that not all of the money goes to the cause.”
“Find a way to show students where their money will go,” she suggested.
They also discussed idea for events that the CSG could sponsor at Relay, including a possible Quidditch tournament.
The floor was then passed to Darlene Motley, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Business, who spoke a bit about the transition process for the future of Chatham.
“We will be looking for your input as we continue to work on tutorial and general education requirements,” she said.
“We also need to boost networking, internships, and the student engagement transcript” she said, “and market Chatham better.”
Finally, she said that there will be information sessions when various decisions are made, and that they plan to have, “more training for professors and advisors,” so that they can better serve the student body throughout the transition process.
