Vice President of Student Affairs Karen Lange spoke to the general council and 18 clubs were funded at the Undergraduate Student Government general council meeting on Oct. 10.
Lange attended the meeting to update USG members about recent student life news. Her updates included a tentative wellness center opening, the two new residence halls on campus, a student memorial, athletics, and political sign policies.
Counseling and Psychological Services will move into the new Center for Well-Being on Grand Avenue in mid-November. Health Services will follow in January, and the grand opening will most likely be in mid-February, according to Lange.
“The center is beautiful, but it’s still got a ways to go. I’ve gotten in and gotten a couple tours of it, and it’s starting to shape up and look really great,” Lange said.
Administration hired Melanie Tucker as the first vice president of wellness, Lange said. Tucker is currently the director of Health Promotion, Resiliency, and Violence Prevention at Dougherty Family College.
The two new residence halls are on schedule even with rain delays, according to Lange. She noted students will have some input for the interior of the halls.
“We’re gonna have opportunities around art in the buildings for student input,” Lange said. “We’re going to do some furniture fairs where students can try out the furniture and give us some feedback on that.”
In addition to the new residence halls, a student memorial is planned near the chapel and new sophomore residence hall.
“We have several representatives from (USG) working with us on creating a memorial on campus for students who have died while they were a student here, and that will be part of the plan as we open the new residence halls,” Lange said.
Lange also discussed the future of Tommie athletics after St. Thomas received a D1 invite from the Summit League.
USG will hand out 3,000 student-government-branded T-shirts ahead of the Tommie-Johnnie game this weekend. There will also be St. Thomas-sponsored transportation to the game.
“We want to promote positive sportsmanship,” USG president Logan Monahan said about the T-shirts.
During the last general council meeting, where Lange was also present, it was discussed that some students feel discomfort with political signage displayed in residence halls on campus. Since then, a committee of USG students and administration met to discuss political sign policies on campus. Lange said any policy changes would go into effect for next year.
USG approved $33,732 in internal requests for 13 clubs. Two campus-wide events were approved for Pulse, $606.50, and African Nations Student Association, $890. Conference monetary requests were approved for $2500 for Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers, $2500 for Model U.N. and $90 for Academic Quiz Bowl.
USG plans to have Athletic Director Phil Esten in for questions about Division 1 athletics in November.
Abby Sliva can be reached at sliv7912@stthomas.edu.