Welcome back

I hope everyone enjoyed their break and is excited to return tocampus. While classes can be long, I know I am happy to beback.

I have listed below a few of the issues your student leadershipteam will be tackling in the upcoming semester.

Campus safety has and continues to be a top concern. It isimportant for us to realize that despite the great area we are inand our beautiful campus, we are not immune to the realities ofliving in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country.Please look for another commentary next week talking about what wecan do to make ourselves safer.

Last semester, the student senate passed a resolution callingfor discussion about the university calendar, specifically dayssurrounding holidays. We had been working with the faculty and theadministration to push for no classes the day prior toThanksgiving. We were successful in our attempts and indeed nextyear, the official university calendar states there will be noclasses that Wednesday.

In September, you may remember we initiated a task force onstudent group recognition and support. That group completed theinitial phase of its work towards the end of last semester and willbegin to codify that proposal. Next week, task force chair andDedman II Senator Andrew Baker and I will present a timeline forimplementation.

We are also very excited that international studentorganizations will again be receiving professional advising. Lastsemester, due to changes in federal reporting requirements, thiscrucial support was not available. Due to the work of many,international student groups are again being supported.

Next week, the campus community will gather to commemorate thelife of an important leader in national history, Dr. Martin LutherKing, Jr. Look around for the flyers announcing the differentevents and opportunities for you to participate.

I also wanted to congratulate two of our Greek councils, thePanhellenic Association and the Interfraternity Council, onsuccessfully completing formal spring recruitment last week.Congratulations also to all the actives and new members of thevarious chapters.

If you are looking to get involved, there are numerousorganizations seeking new members and with open leadershippositions for the spring. One of those organizations is yourStudent Senate which has open seats in Business, Dedman I (30+hours, undeclared), Engineering, and Meadows schools. If you areinterested in applying to be interviewed for one of thesepositions, please contact Student Senate Membership Chair KatyBlakey. Also, it’s time to begin to think about campus wideelections, which will be taking place this spring for the 2004-05school year.

I hope everyone is truly excited about the coming semester andthe potential it has for each of us individually and as acommunity. See you soon!

Thomas Kincaid is the Student Body president. He can be reachedat [email protected].