SGA approves club, debates issues, loses officer

By Lauren Belcher | CBelcher@flagler.edu

Alicia Abbott, First Chair of Publicity for Student Government Association, donned a new hat Nov. 10 when she presented a club for approval at the SGA meeting.

The club, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, would attach itself to the First Coast collegiate chapter that has already been established in Jacksonville. Through general consent, SGA unanimously voted to approve the AFP club.

Abbot, AFP President, was thrilled. “I think it’s a great opportunity for students,” Abbott said. “I’m really excited that it got approved. It is a non-profit organization. It will help students that are looking to go into non-profit.”

According to the AFP Flagler College chapter’s statement of purpose, “[the club] is formed to help students explore exciting and challenging career opportunities in the non-profit industry including higher education…[They work] to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education and certification programs.”

Abbott thinks the club will help students that need a job out of college. “We do job shadowing,” she said. “We do projects in the local community, like Habitat for Humanity and Boys and Girls’ Club. We’ll also do projects here at Flagler College that will benefit Flagler College students, like Chic-Fil-A Day, which is Senior Day.”

Abbott said that the funds that are raised during Senior Day would go back to the annual fund here at Flagler, which helps keep tuition low and builds scholarship opportunities for students. “So overall this club is just a great opportunity for student’s to get involved,” she said.

At the meeting, SGA also held two informal discussions about smoking and the attendance policy.

SGA members discussed their opinions about smoking on campus. They came to a general consensus that there needs to be designated non-smoking areas, with very few people wanting to abolish smoking completely.

The other hot topic was the college’s attendance policy. Members had three choices: leave the policy as is, make some provisions to it or move to erase it completely. With an informal vote, no one agreed to leaving the policy alone, six people wanted to get rid of the policy and the rest fell into the amendment category.

As far as amending the attendance policy, many people agreed on two fronts. Excused absences should not be counted in the 20 percent allowable absences. Also, everyone agreed that there should be unilateral standards across the board — individual departments cannot make their own attendance rules.

SGA President David Matulewicz stressed that these were informal discussions and votes. Any official legislation would be presented to SGA at a later date.

Another notable moment was when Matulewicz pointed out that Parliamentarian Kelsea Shull has resigned from her position for personal reasons. SGA is not sure if they want to refill the position this late in the semester, or if they want to wait until Spring.