Tuesday, May 22, 2007

GA Minutes 22 May 07

Resolution to Fund and Support the Expansion of Da$h to further Vending Machines
Sponsored by: Neil Kandler ’09, Mike Coburn ’10 and the Student Organizations Committee

WHEREAS the expansion of Da$h to additional vending machines has consistently been one of Student Assembly’s goals for the past few years;

WHEREAS many dorms and building without Da$h have already been wired correctly;

WHEREAS the expansion of Da$h has been in high demand with students;

WHEREAS Student Assembly has been in contact with the procurement office about expanding the Da$h program to further vending machines;

LET IT BE RESOLVED that Student Assembly allocate a minimum of $5000 and any additional funds remaining at the end of the year for the expansion of Da$h to additional vending machines;

LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED that Student Assembly work with the procurement office and other interested parties to implement the expansion of Da$h in the most efficient and cost effective means possible;

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED that Student Assembly seek additional sources of funding for the project;

LET IT BE FINALLY RESOLVED that Student Assembly seek to complete the project over the summer term.


Proposal to Renew Funding for the Course Guide Incentive Program
Sponsored by Corey Chu ’08 and the Academic Affairs Committee

WHEREAS the Academic Affairs Committee oversees the SA Professor/Course Guide in conjunction with the SA Web Team;

WHEREAS the Course Guide helps students choose courses by providing them with feedback and ratings from previous students;

WHEREAS the efficacy of the Course Guide is contingent on having a large number of reviews, which are submitted by students upon the completion of the term;

WHEREAS in the Fall 2007 term, the number of reviews submitted had recently declined;

WHEREAS the Course Guide contributions rely on students providing input for courses they’ll never take again while also competing with a faculty-administered course evaluation whose results are inaccessible to students;

WHEREAS in the first week of January 2007, over 2,000 students viewed the Course Guide, with an average of 40 courses viewed per user;

WHEREAS last term, the Academic Affairs Committee instituted an incentive program to raffle off a large quantity of small prizes to boost participation rates;

WHEREAS to obtain these incentives, the Academic Affairs Committee has arranged a deal with Everything But Anchovies to purchase 150 $15 gift certificates at a 50% discount;

WHEREAS course evaluation incentives raffled based on the number of reviews submitted would encourage students to fill out evaluations not only from this term, but for previous terms as well, thus improving the Course Guide’s reviews on a whole;

WHEREAS a fifth of the reviews submitted to the Guide were for courses from previous terms;

WHEREAS since the Fall 2001 term, the Course Guide would receive on average roughly half the number of reviews every Winter term as compared to the Fall term preceding it;

WHEREAS the Course Guide incentive program has stopped the recent decline in participation rates, receiving more reviews for Winter 2007 courses than courses for any previous term since Fall 2005;

WHEREAS with the current incentive program in place, those who would choose to contribute to the Guide contributed an average of 15% more reviews;

WHEREAS a quarter of the users who contributed to the Guide last term (a tenth of the reviews) received a gift certificate;

WHEREAS the Academic Affairs Committee can utilize the incentives themselves, as well as the statistics gathered, to promote the incentive program, thus further boosting future Course Guide participation rates;

WHEREAS on average, for a given Winter term, the Guide receives half as many reviews as it did the preceding Fall term;

WHEREAS the Course Guide received over 2.8 times more reviews following the Winter 2007 term than the preceding Fall Term;

WHEREAS continuing the Course Guide incentive program will allow the Assembly to assess the incentives’ potential for positive reinforcement as their novelty diminishes.

LET IT BE RESOLVED that the Student Assembly allocate $1130.25 for the Course Guide incentive program:
-- $1125 in order to purchase 150 $15 gift certificates, and
-- $5.25 to print out 150 3.5¢ black-and-white thank-you letters to the winners.

LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED that the Academic Affairs Committee coordinate the random and fair distribution of gift certificates to students who complete course evaluations.

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