SG Update 01/18

Crowdfunding

Cameron Thurnherr, associate director of crowdfunding and social media development at RIT, gave a presentation on how to undertake crowdfunding at RIT.

Crowdfunding requires a minimum of three members, including an alumni ambassador and project sponsor. The project must also have a two to four minute video discussing why the group is crowdfunding and what the fundraising goal is. When students begin crowdfunding, Thurnherr suggested that they assemble a team in which each person is responsible for a separate necessary role in the project.

For crowdfunding to be successful, there must be a marketing and communications plan in place, by which to gather and contact donors. The communications plan, and all other parts of the project, will go through an approval process by a review board that ensures the project is following appropriate guidelines.

Student Government Global Consortium

Student Government (SG) Vice President and fifth year Mechanical Engineering Technology major, Corinne Mendieta, and SG Director of Student Relations and third year Marketing major, Larry Williams III, discussed the recent SG Global Consortium. The event was a meeting of SG leaders from all of RIT’s global campuses. Mendieta was excited to share that the leaders had discussed how to leverage their leadership, how to communicate with their respective university administration and how to generally improve SG processes and projects. There was also discussion on the evolution of SG on the various campuses. Williams felt that the consortium allowed Rochester's SG to create a deeper bond with SG leaders on the global campuses, allowing for more effective and enriching communication.

Senate Reports

A mural in B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, which was dedicated to the college’s namesake, has been criticized for being insensitive to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community in a Pawprints petition. The quote from that mural has now been removed.

SG President and fourth year Environmental Science major Bobby Moakley announced that SG elections will be starting soon. He also stated that both the First Year senator and  the Housing and Dining committee chair have stepped down from their positions.

Committee reports

Sustainability Committee Chair and third year Environmental Science major Liam Megraw announced that his committee will be hosting a leadership retreat from 1:30–3 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2019 in the Sustainability Institute to discuss committee plans for the upcoming semester.

Petitions and Responses

A response was given to the mental health petition. It stated what work SG and the university administration have done so far to improve wellness on campus. If students want to become involved in helping improve wellness, they can attend student affairs committee meetings. The assembled task force will be doing periodic “townhall style” discussions so that students can voice concerns. Announcements will be sent out to the student body when those townhall discussions are being hosted.