Get Involved in Student Life

Part 1: New SGA

To usher in the new school year, the Rollins Student Government Association (SGA) has officially reconvened. Throughout the past few weeks, SGA President Allie Mozzicato ’12 and Vice President Samuel Pieniadz ’14, along with members of the executive board, have been diligently working behind the scenes to help bring the new school year to life.

But who will be representing you? Sixteen class senators have been elected this year who will work specifically with their constituents. Eleven organizational senators have been appointed to SGA by faculty and administrative directors to represent different populations of students and organizations on campus as well.

This year, SGA hopes to bring a cohesive image to campus by partnering with other campus organizations. Although many of their plans are not yet specific, they do look forward to working with faculty, staff and administrators in renovating the Cornell Campus Center and the addition of a new pub on campus.

Pieniadz is looking forward to a new year. “I hope to develop connections with the administration that opens lines of communications not only with the student government, but with the student population as a whole,” he said. ”I think this collaboration can bring advances to our campus and student life in general on campus.”

“I am excited that SGA will be a strong voice for students and their concerns,” stated Brent Turner, director of the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership (OSIL) and staff advisor to SGA. He is looking forward to “seeing their effort and productive results.”

SGA meetings take place every Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Galloway Room and are open to all students. Minutes for all meetings can be found at getinvolved.rollins. edu.

Part 2: Get Involved

Anyone involved in a campus organization has probably heard about the new website introduced by OSIL called Get Involved.

The new site creates a central location for students, faculty and staff to learn about what is happening on campus and how they can become involved. It has many unique features, including a virtual bulletin board, elections, document archives, photo galleries and a search feature that matches students’ preferences and interests to campus organizations.

Brent Turner, director of OSIL, is excited that Rollins has shifted to this new website.

“OSIL believes in sustainability and wanted to facilitate a ‘paperless’ student organization community, as well as easier management for student organization leaders,” he said. Turner feels that Rollins has found these in Get Involved.

Making the entire campus use the new website may be trickier. However, Turner is not daunted. “Students need to use the site for student organization management. It’s a great place to see what events are happening on campus as well as how to connect with student organizations.”

The students who have begun to use the site are happy with what they have seen so far. “Get Involved is a really exciting opportunity for this campus. From a technical point of view, this site is remarkable for its ability to integrate basically any and every campus function into a single database,” said Zach Baldwin ’14. “From the vantage of the user, it is a fairly easy system to use and it has a lot of benefits. It will be interesting to see how Get Involved grows and is incorporated into organization life on campus over the next few years.”

If you are interested in learning more, explore the site yourself by visiting getinvolved. rollins.edu, or watch your emails for information on one of the upcoming training sessions for students.

OSIL research shows that students who get involved in at least one organization have higher GPAs, stronger time management skills, better networking opportunities with faculty and staff, and a stronger sense of connection to Rollins. What are you waiting for? Check out Get Involved today.