Whether it’s increasing student fees, lack of non-adjunct teachers, or university fines, the union wants to bring student clubs together to fix problems.

“The GSU does two things: connects groups when they do anything, like service projects. It’s a medium for club communication. It also mobilizes senators and discusses problems they have,” said John Hollingsworth, secretary for the group.

“It started as an interest group and is apolitical and focused on community service.” Hollingsworth said.

The organization mainly consists of ambassadors that work with Rowan University clubs and senators, including the Sociology Club, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and Lucy/Vox.

These ambassadors attend club meetings and report to the rest of the union, which holds meetings in Beau Rivage Apartments on Sundays and Wednesdays.

When it was originally founded, the union sent a version of its list of problems to SGA, however, many of the issues listed were problems that were already solved or could not be solved by simple procedure.

“One of the things listed was that they felt there was no open forum, this wasn’t true,” said Stephanie Ackerman, SGA president.

During each senate meeting, sessions for public comment and senator concerns are held where students can communicate their problems to SGA.

“We understand it’s really hard to get up in front of everyone to speak your mind so now we have an email address where people can say what they want without their name attached to it,” she said.

While the senate and GSU, have had their differences, SGA still wants to hear what they have to say.

“We want to hear everything they have to say, and what any student has to say,” Ackerman said.

The group has no hierarchy but uses a secretary to remain organized. They also have had several meetings with the Student Government executive board.

Akin Olla, an ambassador for the union wants students to express themselves more at SGA meetings..

At last week’s SGA meeting, the group provided questions to members of senate and other students to ask Interim President Ali Houshmand.

For more information on the GSU, visit their Facebook page or email them at GlassboroSU@gmail.com

To express yourself to SGA in private, email SGAConcerns@rowan.edu.

The Student Government senate has approved last meeting’s addendum to their probation policy and re-chartered an old campus club.

On Monday, an addendum was passed limiting the probationary period of clubs to 90 days.

Originally, a club had to wait until the end of the academic year to leave probation and gain access to its funds.

“One club who was on probation brought it up last year,” said Kiley McCulloch, executive vice president of SGA.

“They had to wait until the end of the year even though they were on top of all their stuff,” she said.

After a club earns eight points, they come up for de-charterment, and if they are spared, they are put on probation for 90 days.

One organization, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), has already accumulated seven points and asked the senate to revoke two of them.

Elizabeth Ambacher, representative of SAE, took the floor to explain how the club earned so many in such a short period of time.

“We had a brand new e-board this semester, and there was a lot of miscommunication,” Ambacher said.

“We just need a little bit of wiggle room to access our supplementary funds and make sure we have good standing for the rest of the academic year,” she said.

The motion was denied in a senate vote. The group received supplemental funds totaling $2,500 earlier this semester.

Monday’s meeting wasn’t all about probation and the process of removing a club’s charter. An old club, the Early Childhood Education Club, received its charter back from SGA.

The club’s charter was removed two years ago after failing to find an advisor but was revitalized and is no longer a petitioning club.

“We’ve been working hard to meet the requirements and go above and beyond,” said Kaitlin Bosch, president of the ECEC.

The club held its first Play Day for Rowan, a service event letting Glassboro children come to Rowan to play for the day. The event featured balloons and prizes with snacks provided by Rowan.

The club has grown to at least 50 members and focuses on childhood development.

For more information on SGA and its member clubs visit rowan.edu/sga.

Until recently, clubs spared from having their charter removed by the Student Government senate were put on probation until the end of the academic year.

On Monday, SGA put forth an addendum that would shorten the period to 90 days as opposed to an entire academic semester or even longer.

“Right now, if a club loses its charter in November, it will go all the way to May,” said Tom Holroyd, associate vice president of facilities and operations.

“This will cut it all down to 90 days,”said Holroyd.

However, according to the language of the new addendum, if a club fails to attend all senate meetings, submit all missing paperwork or fail to submit any future paperwork, they will automatically lose their charter.

Currently there are no organizations on probation, however there are clubs in jeopardy of losing their charter for not sending representatives to senate, including several honors societies and Rowan’s Venue magazine.

Some students fear that in the future, recently chartered organizations might get punished in the same way a veteran organization will.

“People feel right now that if a group goes on probation in April, they won’t be as punished as a group that might go on earlier in the year,” said Michael Hedayat, junior class senator and former pre-law club senator.

“If a new club goes on probation for missing a few pieces of paperwork or a meeting, they’ll be punished like an older club. Anyone who wants to give to the Rowan community shouldn’t fear punishment,” Hedayat said.

The legislation has yet to be approved and will go up to vote on Nov. 7 at the regular senate meeting.

For more information on the SGA strike policy and constitution, visit www.rowan.edu/sga.

On Monday, the Society of Automotive Engineers was awarded $2,500 to help maintain and compete with their Baja Car.

The car was originally paid for by the department of mechanical engineering, however it was given to the club after they submitted their budgets.

“We already owe the department $2,000 just to maintain the vehicle,” said Noah Gedrimas of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

“The rest will be used to update expired parts, like seat belts and helmets,” he said.

The group also says it needs to raise a total of $6,500 including the supplemental already earned.

The group cannot ask for more money from SGA due to an established cap of $2,500.

Last year, the club came in 30th place among 200 other schools in a Baja car racing competition.

The small cars race off-road at different competitons each year.

“We also have the option for reducing it down to $2,000 just so they can pay the amount they owe to the engineering department,” said Stephanie Pharo, community standards assistant.

After a failed vote for the reduced amount of $2,000 the full amount was approved by popular senate vote.

Student government currently has a remaining budget of $12,500 for future supplemental budget extensions that can be applied for by any organization.

SGA also announced Dance Extensions as club of the month for filing paperwork on time and having a dance for 9/11 victims fundraiser.

If your club is in need of a budget extension, one can be applied for by contacting Tom Austin at Austin03@students.rowan.edu.

Student body president, Stephanie Ackerman stood before her fellow peers to update them on what SGA has worked on and what students can expect this year.

As a response to complaints about both off campus ticketing and complaints about relations with Glassboro, SGA created the State-Municipal Relations Committee.

The committee has since had meetings with the town in public forums regarding off-campus properties rented by students.

An open forum was held during the fall semester where students raised complaints about their safety and the attitude of law enforcement.

There are no plans for another forum; however the group wants to eliminate the double fining system that allows the university to fine students for infractions that take place off-campus.

Ackerman also expressed her gratefulness to Rowan students who helped out when the school took in over one thousand
evacuees, this summer.

“Rowan University stepped up, and you stepped up,” Ackerman said. “Without your leadership, this would not have been possible.”

SGA also created several assistant vice president positions to address other complaints regarding university grounds, among others.

Last year, the group also held a petition to raise funding for higher education which was signed by over 900 students.

In the future, SGA will revamp its philanthropy campaign by adding more events on and changing older ones.

Ackerman still wants students to be their own bosses and she feels student government has the tools to make them just that.

“Make your own voice heard,” Ackerman said.

“Creating and owning your own share is one of the most prominent aspects for being a boss,” she added.

Academic and class senator positions are still open. For more information visit www.rowan.edu/sga.

On Monday, SGA and its new executive board welcomed back the campus with a few speeches from administrators and some new ideas for the upcoming academic year.

Interim president Ali Houshmand, medical school dean Paul Katz, and associate dean for civic involvement Joe Mulligan all shared their best wishes.

They also asked students to keep rowdy behavior to a minimum and respect the rights and property of Glassboro residents.

Student government has also announced the “Club of the Month” program, an incentive for clubs to get their monthly progress reports and other paperwork on time.

“We started talking about it at retreat, this year. There are so many clubs that do a lot and don’t get recognized,” said Joe Chen, SGA’s senate chair.

Those with the highest points will be given table preference at organization events, as well as other small perks.

In the past, SGA has used a strike system to enforce rules regarding club paperwork which lead to several clubs being brought up for decharterment last year.

SGA is also interested in helping students living on campus to vote in local, state and national elections by signing them up to vote while they live on campus on in Glassboro.

“We’re trying our hardest to make voting as easy as possible,” said board of trustee representative, Aly Wedell.

Forms and pledges to vote were made available at the meeting, and voter registration is available in the SGA suite in the student center.

For more information about SGA and club information visit www.rowan.edu/sga.

“Deus Ex: Human Revolution” is a single-player stealth romp through Detroit and Hong Kong where players take control of Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT officer who heads a paramilitary company’s security team.

All is well in Detroit until an unknown group of domestic terrorists attacks the company’s research labs and a team of researchers goes missing while Jensen becomes gravely injured.

He returns to the job six months later with a new mostly mechanical body that can be upgraded as the game progresses.

Players have the option of using action, role-playing and stealth elements to complete over 40 hours of gameplay.

You also have the option of using tranquilizers and non-lethal weapons instead of killing most of the game’s enemies. However, there is still a healthy array of machine guns, rocket launchers and shotguns that players can use.

There are some minor problems with voice acting and low-resolution textures but these are easily overlooked.

Overall, “Human Revolution” is a fresh break from all of the Call of Duty clones and MMO’s that inundate the market these days and helped make surviving Hurricane Irene that much more enjoyable.

Piano Forum and the Philosophy club were brought up for charter removal due to failure to send in monthly progress reports and service projects at this Monday’s final SGA meeting of the year.

According to SGA officials, the clubs were warned in advance of their violations but failed to correct them before they earned their final strikes.

“We should have asked if (our senator) was attending, but we really thought we were,” said Sharon Falkowski, president of Rowan’s Piano Forum.

“We’re one of the oldest clubs on campus and we help music students with their auditions and offer support to piano majors. I know we can do a better job,” Falkowski said.

According to SGA, the group didn’t have any service projects for the year and gained their last strikes when they failed to submit monthly progress reports.

However, senate voted 90 percent to 10 percent to keep the club chartered letting them try again with report handling next semester.

But Philosophy Club wasn’t handed the same kindness straight away.

“We ran into a lot of problems with our last president, problems that I’m willing to discuss in a public forum,” said Jamie Meyers, president of Philosophy Club.

“We don’t think we should be de-chartered just because of a few forms that no one is probably going to look at anyway,” Meyers said.

This caused much uproar among the executive board, who use the report system to keep tabs on clubs that they give money to, but the club receives no money in the budget.

“They cost the university no money,” said Mike Cilento, chief financial officer for SGA

“Being an SGA chartered club gives them credibility to the rest of the students,” Cilento said in their defense.

The vote was one of the closest SGA has had all year with 48 percent in favor of removing their charter and 52 percent giving them another chance.

Both groups will be on probation all of next year. If either group fails to send in a progress report, fail to attend an SGA meeting or a send in a service project, they will automatically have their charter removed.

To see if your group has been missing any of these, check with the SGA office on the first floor of the student center.

This Monday, SGA passed a resolution to hold chartered publications to the same standards of student clubs, meaning Venue, The Gallery, Avant, Image and The Whit will held accountable by senate.

According to the resolution, there has never been any clause or reason keeping these organizations from fulfilling the requirements but publications have been treated differently because they were considered a campus service, not unlike Rowan EMS.

“(The publications) aren’t living up to the same standards as all of the other clubs,” said Allison Wedell, student trustee on the board of trustees.

“It’s really not that big of a deal and the issues themselves can count as a service project because it’s a service to the students,” Wedell said.

However, the senate now wants publications to adhere to the points system in place for chartered clubs. If they miss meetings or miss sending in monthly reports, they’ll be penalized just like everyone else.

The senate also feels that if a publication receives a budget, and can apply for supplemental budget increases, then they owe an obligation to the senate.

Publications must also now attend workshops as mandated by the E-board forcing presidents and editors of organizations to go to treasurers workshops even if there are no appointed treasurers.

“I don’t understand why these guys don’t want to vote in Senate,” said Lizette Velasquez, special events director for SGA.

“(They) should still exercise their views at SGA,” Velasquez said.

The resolution will go into effect in the fall semester of 2011.

Last September, SGA voted to revive an old ruling giving them the power to get rid of clubs if they miss three meetings in a semester.

Now, SGA wants to extend the penalties of the “three strike” rule to the entire academic year. This means that clubs who gain strikes from SGA will carry those on to the next semester. So if a club gains two strikes one semester, changes it’s e-board between semesters, and returns and gets another strike they could be up for decharterment.

“We didn’t have a lot of problems the first semester,” said Kiley McCulloch, recording secretary of SGA, in charge of keeping track of meeting attendance, minutes and progress reports of clubs.

“(We find that) people are starting to slack off at the end of the spring semester,” McCulloch said.

Student government also voted to go beyond the three strike policy, and create a points system for smaller infractions like missing a weekly progress report, or not having a service event.

There was an uproar of disappointment in the crowd, but one club senator stood up and brought down the house.

“I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal guys,” said Ed Baumann, president of the Rowan Television Network.

“RTF’s been doing this stuff for years and we’ve kept good track of it, there’s no reason to complain,” Baumann said.

These small infractions have been given point values and if a club goes over their limit, they’ll be up for probation and possible decharterment.

Clubs worried about missing reports should check with their club secretary.