SG Update 11/19

RIT Bookstore Future Survey

Milagros Concepcion, associate vice president/controller and assistant treasurer at RIT, presented an upcoming survey to get feedback from students about their needs relating to textbooks and materials. She explained that RIT’s contract with Barnes & Noble was established 10 years ago, but that students’ needs have since changed. She hopes to use feedback from students to find the optimal system to help students access materials, whether this is a renewed contract with Barnes & Noble or a contract with a new third party. She said that changes to the textbooks and materials system will likely be effective next July.

Proposed Updates to C02.0

Associate Professor in the Department of History Corinna Schlombs presented proposed changes to policy C0.20, which covers academic misconduct in research and scholarship. She is part of the Faculty Senate’s Research and Scholarship standing committee, which began reviewing this policy four years ago. She emphasized that review of the current policy, passed in 1991, was long overdue since the federal definition of research misconduct has changed. She explained that the policy exists to secure the support of outside sponsors for research by ensuring the integrity of research at RIT and to create campus-wide knowledge of the need for integrity in research. 

Schlombs noted that her committee needs the approval of every governing body at RIT, including the Student Government (SG), to pass the changes.

She proposed a variety of changes to the policy. The definition of research misconduct will be updated to match the federal definition. Only RIT community members will be allowed on the panels to review charges of research misconduct, and the panelists will no longer be anonymous. The policy will also outline the voting procedure for the final panel.

SG voted to pass the proposed changes.

PawPrints Charges

SG discussed a variety of PawPrints petitions. First, they charged the petition to “Increase Minimum Pay for RIT Dining Workers” to the Housing and Dining Committee. They also charged the petition to “Add Universal Pass/Fail Option to Fall 2021 Semester,” which is similar to a previous petition, to the Academics and Co-Ops Committee. 

SG passed updates to two petitions and responses to a variety of petitions. Responses to two petitions advocating for the pass/fail grading option for the Fall 2021 semester referenced an email from the Office of the Registrar from Thursday the 18th announcing that the Faculty Senate approved the alternate grading option for this fall.

Upcoming PawPrints Website Updates

Cassidy Tierney, SG’s director of Technology Services, presented about upcoming changes to the SG PawPrints website. She plans to release the update before the Spring semester.

Announcements

SG reviewed their successful campaign to encourage the Faculty Senate to approve the alternate grading option for the Fall semester and gave two awards for the month of November 2021. The Representative Student Organization (RSO) of the month award went to the ALANA Collegiate Association (ACA), represented by RIT ACA President Natalie Robinson. SGer of the month went to Jennifer Hill, the Women’s Senator.