by The Cowl Editor on November 2, 2017
Congress Updates
By Connor Nolan ’19
Student Congress Publicity
This week Congress welcomed Peter Palumbo, the director of academic advising, to speak at its weekly meeting. He came to discuss the changes regarding the class registration systems as well as to field questions relating to advising. The new system, called “schedule planner”, can be found on CyberFriar and is a new way for students to fill out their class schedules in a more streamlined, personal process.
After fielding some questions regarding how it operated, Palumbo clarified that one must still register at their normal time, but instead they will submit their hopeful schedule and then be asked to enter their pin during registration. It was essentially employed in order to reduce the stress and headache of the registration process. To continue to streamline the process, all waitlists will now be filled online rather than by hand.
The School of Business will be the first school to test out the full program, and when asked why, Palumbo responded that the business school‘s administration volunteered because it is one of the largest programs on campus. Palumbo also fielded a few questions regarding the first year experience classes, which are designed to help underclassmen explore the various majors and minors on campus as well as other ways to get involved in the programs.
These questions regarded making sure the classes were not biased towards any one department or major, as well as making sure they were doing enough to help the students make decisions. Palumbo finished up by speaking about how he wishes to make advising less transactional and more developmental. He hopes to do this by making some changes to how the system currently operates to create a better relationship between advisors and students that leads to a better advising process.
Thank you to Palumbo from all the members of the 68th Student Congress.
The Congress would like to invite all students to attend Reflecting Forward, a weekend celebrating multiculturalism and diversity at Providence College, and the various events that are a part of it. Students can register online through the Office of Alumni Relations to attend.
This week‘s old business related to a piece of legislation that was presented last week regarding the changing of service hour requirements for the members of Congress. The changes that were made regarding how the events run by members of Congress would be logged. It will be the work of the various classes‘ boards and the executive board to mark down attendance at mandatory events, as well as making sure students meet their required event total. The vote passed with one abstention. Congratulations to all who worked on this piece.
The only piece of new business presented before the Congress this meeting was pertaining to a new club seeking accreditation on campus. PC is a Novel Idea is a book club organized by students here at Providence College. As of now, the club has met a few times, showing strong attendance.
The creators of the club spoke to why it should be accepted as a club on campus saying they were seeking a consistent space for students that love to read to come together. They plan on holding book drives and some other sort of local charity work if they are accepted. After fielding a few questions as to how they would allocate funds if requested, the speakers were thanked for attending. The club will be voted upon next week, and we would like to thank them for coming before the Congress.