The plans for OrangeSeeds, the Student Association’s fledging freshman leadership program to tentatively launch for next fall, has come to a halt.

The Office of Greek Life of Experiential Learning has questioned the program and has told SA members to put it on hold, said SA Vice President Travis Mason, coordinator of the program following last night’s SA meeting.

‘We’re not getting a ‘no’ answer, but we’re not getting a helping hand either,’ Mason said. ‘They’re not being as supportive as they should be.’

OGLEL had made a formal claim, called a charge, that it was organizing a freshman leadership program, Mason said. The formation of SA’s program came as a shock to them. ‘But one, SA never heard anything about their charge. And two, no students heard of their charge,’ Mason said.

The fact that a student is trying to launch a campus-wide program partially contributes to the conflict, Mason said.

‘We still have the struggle of a student leading some sort of university initiative,’ Mason said. ‘I don’t want this to be a Travis Mason program or anything, but this is a program that needs to happen. We think this should benefit the university as a whole.’

Although Joe Oravecz, associate dean of students within OGLEL, is the SA adviser, OGLEL did not hear of the program, Mason added.

The situation consists of a series of miscommunications between the two organizations, and the gap between them should close, Mason said.

The program’s success means more to SA than who exactly launches it, as long as the groups can work together, Mason added.

‘The Student Association is more than willing to help to get this done,’ Mason said. ‘We’re just trying to get it implemented, and we really don’t care of the process.’

Mason and the OrangeSeeds planning committee are meeting with other sponsors and departments of the university to research other options, Mason said.

‘But the ball needs to get rolling, and right now, the ball is a standstill,’ Mason said.

In other SA news:

n SA members debated a University Senate proposal to move up the class add and drop deadline by one week. This action would allow only one week to drop classes.

Professors had proposed the motion because students who joined their classes late could not catch up, they needed an earlier count of their class size and students on waiting lists had to wait too long, said Board of Elections and Membership Chairwoman Jessie Cordova.

But most members agreed that the time period to add and drop should remain two weeks because some students may need to get other restrictions lifted before adding classes. Students also need time to ‘shop’ for classes and students may need more time to decide if they need to drop a class.

n SA members have started to work on a Students’ Bill of Rights, which would be passed out to each professor and include rights such as always providing a clear syllabus, said SA President Andrew Lederman. They also will begin work on a Professors’ Bill of Rights.

n The assembly approved a bill stating that no more than 33 percent of the Student Activity Fee will be allocated to operating expenses, including organizations like WERW, WJPZ and the Outing Club; no more than 66 percent be allocated to programming expenses, including groups like University Union Concerts and UU Cinemas; and no more than 8 percent be allocated to campus publications.

n The assembly approved a bill setting the SA 2004-2005 budget request amount to $68,700, which includes an increase in office supply funds for photocopying to respond to student organization’s requests.

Published on March 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm