by The Cowl Editor on September 20, 2018
Congress Updates
By Emili Castro Rodriguez ’21
On Tuesday, September 18, the 69th Student Congress welcomed four public speakers for two different causes. The first pair of speakers were the friendly Father Bonaventure, O.P., and our very own class of 2021 president, Korey Lord. They spoke about their emerging plan for our beloved community –Friar Friendliness! The initiative aims to create a speaking culture among students and add the component of friendliness to the Friar Family. It is as simple as saying, “Hello” to anyone you run into, even if you don’t know them. Fr. Bonaventure defined the aim of this initiative as part of “becoming the friendliest college campus in America,” and reminded us, “That family says hi.”
Next, there were two other speakers: Patti Goff, the assistant vice president for integrated learning and administration and Eileen Wisnewski, director of the Center for Career Education. In short, their goal is to work towards providing students with the most holistic and integrated college experience possible.
Their objective in the meeting was to launch two new technologies that the Office of Integrating Learning is incorporating. The first one is an application called Handshake, and it is the replacement of the now obsolete eFriars. This platforms allows students to view which companies will be attending the Career Expo, and makes it easier to research prior to meeting them. The second newest technology employed by the Office of Integrated Learning is FriarLink, PC’s very own networking system. Both representatives of the office left the meeting encouraging student leaders to spread the word for both of these wonderful tools.
Finally, Congress had two pieces of legislation to discuss, both new business. The first piece was presented by John Stablein ‘19 regarding a resolution that lays out how the finance committee is carrying out allocations for clubs on campus.
The second piece, a bill presented by Tom Bernard ‘21 and Sean Richardson ‘20 required that from now on, all members of an executive branch on Congress have to undergo an “Exec Training,” with the aim of promoting a more cohesive work environment.