Barnard reporter Madina Toure gives us dispatches from Monday night’s Student Government Association meeting.

What’s on SGA’s mind? Graduation, reaccreditation, and first-year elections, as students discussed at their Monday evening meeting.

Katie Palillo, SGA President and BC ’10, discussed her meeting with new Vice President for Information Technology Carol Katzman, who highlighted a 6-month restructuring plan of online programs such as ResNet and Academic Technologies. Palillo also meeting with Dean Taylor, whose new position of Chief of Staff was described as being more accessible students when President Debora Spar could not be.

Palillo and Chelsea Zimmerman, Senior Class President and BC ’10, had attended Thursday’s Community Forum for Commencement 2010 in which students gave suggestions for locations for the class of 2010’s graduation—after they were dismayed to learn they would be graduating in a gym.

Some locations suggested by students were the South Lawn and Baker Field. The Senior Class Council is also working on putting together a survey in which students can voice their opinions on what they feel is a priority to them, such as the number of tickets allocated to each student versus location as well as speaker preferences.

Kim Wu, Vice President for Student Government and Giselle Léon, Vice President for Communications and BC ’10, visited Dodge and South Lawn. They said administrators welcomed their suggestions, such as prioritizing decorations.

Léon also met with Dean and Assistant Provost Hilary Link about Barnard’s reaccreditation process, discussing ways that they can expand their mission and goals and help student understand how the process works. She also attended a town hall meeting in which topics such as preparing students for a cultural understanding and the science requirement in the Nine Ways of Knowing were of primary concern.

First-year election results were also announced, with the positions are of Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer already declared. But three candidates for first-year president received the same percentage of votes, so a run-off election will start on Tuesday, September 29 at 9 a.m. until Thursday, October 1, at 9 a.m.

Sharmin Ahmed, Vice President of Finance and BC ’10, gave an overview of her meeting with Vice President Gregory Brown, in which he said that financial aid cannot be determined until they know who is attending Barnard. They also discussed the purpose of landline phones, saying that eliminating them could reduce costs. Members of the meeting, however, did express concerns about how that would affect international students and others who may need them, though VP Brown also suggested keeping them in special circumstances.

Other announcements included the recent appointment of a new Communications Specialist, a Special Events Task Force that is working on creating a point system that clubs, groups or organizations can use to reserve space in most locations on campus, and a Community Health Assistants Initiative to aid students with swine flu and other contagious illnesses.

Emily Kenison, University Senator and BC ‘11, gave a brief overview of what the University Senate is and descriptions of the Student Affairs Caucus (SAC), the current endowment status and figures, and committees such as the Honors and Prize Committee, the Alumni Relations Committee and the Commission on the Status of Women.

The meeting ended with a discussion on the Hewitt dining hall resolution, feminine products in bathrooms and a quick brainstorm list of speakers for the Representative Council meeting.