Student Council September Progress Report

September Reflection
Greetings IMSA,

It’s been a packed month for Student Council, and we are proud to present our progress on the projects that students wanted us to do. August and September have been very busy for Student Council, resulting in the completion of several projects such as Fall Club Chartering, Club Fair, Mental Health Initiative Week, and the Club Commitment Tiers.

Because many of the previous projects were event-based, Student Council Plans to shift its focus for the next quarter towards policies and long-term solutions to the problems affecting IMSA students. Here is the current list of projects Student Council would like to pursue in the second quarter:
Work with faculty on a proposal for sexual education at IMSA
Modify vending machine food to have food that students like
Revise the Quality of Life Survey
Reviving the Sodexo Committee to improve communication of students’ dietary needs to Sodexo
Work with the Office of Institutional Research on the Year of Inquiry into mental health
Create racks for skateboards in the halls and/or main building
Look into the parental fluency restriction for world languages as well as placement testing into world languages
We also have been able to update the Dimension Guides, which document the history of Student Council projects dating back multiple years. You can read the dimension guides at the following link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1t98jtSTMKjPLYzUj_pOqQBWEhsm6maUa?usp=sharing

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask one of the Student Council members.

Sincerely,
Ashley Homecgoy
06 Hall Senator

Sophomore-at-Large Elections

After applications, interviews, and a group process, our five finalists were Sriya Gandhi, Eric Pan, Rachna Gupta, Ella Foes, and Monika Narain. On October 3rd, Eric and Monika were voted by the sophomore class as the 2018-19 Sophomore-At-Larges.

Project Name: Fall Charter
Project Leader & Members: Kaushal Gumpula
Purpose: To give upperclassmen the opportunity to charter clubs that they’d like to see on IMSA’s campus.
Progress: Fall charter has been completed, with 28 clubs chartered during early move-in.
Future Plans: Club check-ins will occur during first quarter for new clubs and clubs placed on probation to ensure that they have met first quarter requirements.

Project Name: Big Sibling Program
Project Leader & Members: Vinay Tummarakota, Kanika Leang, Ray Shang, Ash Homecgoy
Purpose: Increasing cross-class interaction through matching upperclassmen and underclassmen
Progress: All events that were planned during the summer/beginning of the year have now run (kickoff event, as well as expressive therapy with Heliotrope and sibling photoshoot during MHI Week).
Future Plans: There are no events concretely planned out, but there may be an SCC sponsored Big Sibling event in the future.

Project Name: Basketball Lights
Project Leader & Members: Faris Shaikh, Ray Shang
Purpose: To install a light that shines down on the 1504 basketball court so that students may play basketball during the night.
Progress: Mr. Chris Kornsey, the Executive Director of IMSA Facilities, was contacted. A contractor was brought in to evaluate pricing.
Future Plans: Currently, facilities is prioritizing fixing the broken lights surrounding the main building. Once those lights are fixed, a light will be installed on top of 1504, and should be up in several weeks.

Project Name: Mental Health Initiative Week
Project Leader & Members: Surya Cannon, Alex Sobczynski, Red Maier, Ketu Patel
Purpose: To spread awareness and educate the community on different aspects of mental health.
Progress: MHI Week was September 10th-14th this year. There were more events this year than the previous, and the turn out for events such as Burn Your Stressors increased.
Future Plans: MHI Week has now been completed, but there have been many requests to bring back certain events later in the year, like therapy dogs. CAB will likely bring back therapy dogs at other points in the school year.

Project Name: Titanotes
Project Leader & Members: Sophie Pribus, Surya Cannon
Purpose: Creating a notes database to assist students who miss class due to sports or sickness.
Progress: Titanotes has begun its trial period with the math department and is continuously uploading notes. Use the links pinned at the top of the Studco Facebook page to upload to and access the website!
Future Plans: Currently, the project is being piloted with the math department, but if there is demand, it may be expanded to other disciplines.

Project Name: IMSA Bike Project
Project Leader & Members: Kaushal Gumpula and Ray Shang
Purpose: To get free bikes that students can use on the IMSA campus.
Future Plans: This project is on hold due to the coming colder weather conditions and the earlier sunset time. Additionally, there has been some student interest in replacing the scooters with bikes to circumvent the Aurora law that restricts people 15 and older from riding bikes on the sidewalk.