The meeting began with a roll call, followed by an approval of the minutes of the prior meeting.
The guest speaker for the night, President Mazey, was then introduced. Her talk centered on various items of interest to the student body, including improvement in national rankings for BGSU, retention initiatives and their positive results, and the quality of incoming students this year.
Following President Mazey’s talk, there was a proposal to suspend the stipulation …show more content…
Regular meetings with the identified groups and individuals would be mandated in the bylaws for all senators. Bess (2008) describes structure as “the rules and resources that group members use to sustain the social system.” Adoption of this proposal is intended to alter the structure of the relationship by clearly defining a method of communication and interaction, or the rules by which the parties interact. By altering both the context in which the senators operate, along with the structure previously in place, informal ad-hoc relationships with constituents will be replaced with a more formal and well-defined communication channel. The goal of this effort is to provide a more effective student government organization that is able to more rapidly identify student issues and work more nimbly to correct …show more content…
She stated that Diversity Day was created in response to some racially-charged incidents that occurred in and around campus last year. The desired outcome from this event was to influence change in the culture of both the campus as well as the environment of Bowling Green at large with respect to diversity. The committee correctly recognized that the issue of discrimination crosses the boundaries of the university and extends into the community at large. In order to accomplish their goal, they also understood that both internal and external parties needed to be engaged in the process. While the USG had adequate contacts within the university, the same was not the case for external entities. The Office of Equity and Diversity (OED) was recognized as a “boundary spanner”, which Bess (2008) defined in the following manner: “members who cross boundaries to enact their roles in the surrounding environment.” The committee identified that OED had existing contacts and relationships with other organizations outside of the BGSU environment. By reaching out to OED and forming a partnership with them, their contacts and relationships could be leveraged to not only include more parties in the event than would have been possible with USG alone, but also to expand the impact of the event throughout the