In a packed SGA Legislative meeting last Wednesday, February 11th, the SGA Executive Board announced a new initiative: The New Deal for Goucher, which is designed to create more student jobs on campus in the coming week.
SGA President Sam Adatto and Vice-President for Student Action Max Temkin proposed an ambitious spending package of $18,340 to allow the expansion of on- offices to hire new student workers. The New Deal was backed by many high members of Goucher's senior staff that included President Sanford J. Ungar, Director of Enrollment Management Michael O'Leary, and CDO Director Tracy Martin, who were all present at the student meeting.
President Ungar endorsed the effort, saying, "I will commit to personally give money to this program." During the meeting, Temkin delivered a power-point presentation in which he explained that the new initiative would be executed in two phases: the proposed spending initiative and a second exploratory program to create innovative student jobs.
Selected academic departments will be able to hire students for an additional twenty hours each week for the remainder of the semester.
The second phase would put into place a corps of student trained EMTs who would assist Public Safety during medical situations, and create a student conservation corps. Members of the conservation corps would be paid for "Working with clubs and providing environmental oversight."
The proposal has been under discussion for several weeks, and was initially intended create jobs only for students with federal work study. But recently SGA decided that it was necessary to open the opportunities to all students.
Adatto and Temkin explained that funding would come from several sources. Student activities fees will provide half of the money, while a Goucher innovation grant, a House Council fundraiser, and the College Capital Campaign would provide the remaining money; however there is no guarantee that these sources will be able to deliver.
The spending package is designed to inject cash into the student employment budgets of several departments on campus, which SGA will select from a list to be drawn up by the Controller's office.
Michael O'Leary, stressed that, "the New Deal is not a done deal," emphasizing that while he is hopeful that the program will succeed, SGA must continue to work to secure the project's future.
Several Legislature members asked about the future sustainability of the jobs program. Temkin and Adatto admitted that it was only a trial program and that future spending will be controlled by future SGA officials. But some criticized the decision not to prioritize students with work study. SGA President Sam Adatto '09 argued that the "most democratic way [to allocate jobs] is to have it be open to any [student]." The meeting also featured the resignations of Vice-President for Financial Affairs, Sharif Ismail '09 and Parliamentarian Dean Mack '09, who was not present at the meeting, but requested that a letter be read on his behalf.
In a surprise move, Taylor Sampson '09, head of the new Social Justice Grants program also resigned. Delivering an emotional statement to the Legislature, Mr. Sampson explained that his time on the board had been draining and stressful, and that he was at a point in his life where he needed to "figure things out and find a good direction" and that his time on the Executive Board "wasted personal time." In an interview with the Quindecim, Adatto expressed his desire to move forward with several other initiatives which were put on hold last semester. He showed particular interest in an effort to reform the Judicial Board process, as well.
Max Temkin has also indicated that SGA will move forward with other items that were featured as part of the Adatto campaign platform, including an effort to make food available after the Gopher Hole closing time of 1:00 a.m.
With two new Exec Board members, Evan Segal and Max Temkin, three open positions, and The New Deal, among other ideas, it is clear that SGA will be anything other than dull this semester.
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