Student Government listened to presentations about Ombuds and the General Education revision, appointed an Academics & Co-ops Committee Chair and outlined PawPrint petitions during their Oct. 23 Senate meeting.
Ombuds
Joe Johnson and Ashley Meyer from the Ombuds Office presented on Ombuds at RIT. Ombuds services are available to all students, parents, faculty and staff. They are a neutral and confidential resource that aims to help the RIT community navigate problems. Ombuds can help by facilitating conversations, explaining university procedures and discussing ways to resolve conflict. Ombuds will not report what visitors tell them to the administration.
General Education Revision
Leah Bradley, Director of Educational Effectiveness Assessment, Elizabeth DeBartolo from the Provost’s Office and Kaitlin Stack Whitney, Associate Professor of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, presented on the General Education Revision.
The main proposed change is the addition of a required first year course called Technology & Society. This class would initially focus on AI literacy, but could change to reflect trends in culture and technological development.
This proposed class has received pushback from students, as evidenced by a PawPrint titled “Don’t make AI part of General Education.” The petition has garnered over 200 signatures, the number of signatures required for SG to charge a PawPrint to a committee.
To fit this class into the first year schedule, required perspective categories would be reduced from 7 to 6. The proposed categories, called “core explorations,” include Global Systems & Cultural Connections, Human Creativity & Meaning, Ethics & Civic Responsibility, Quantitative Analysis & Data Literacy, Natural Science Inquiry and Scientific Thinking & Methods.
If implemented, changes would not affect current students.
Academics & Co-ops Appointment
Areeba Sarwar, fifth year Computer Engineering Technology student was appointed Academics & Co-ops Committee Chair by a unanimous vote. Sarwar was the sole applicant.
PawPrints
Director of Student Relations, Jameson Baker, outlined PawPrints.
The PawPrint about tuning the Fireside Lounge piano was given an update detailing that a professional piano tuner will be inspecting the piano.
The meeting adjourned after 2 hours.
