Congress Weekly – February 8
Written by Alicia Shen
Edited by Behraz Rezaie
Hello Marianopolis!
Last Friday’s Congress meeting began with a quick recap of Career Day held on February 7th. Vice-President Meghan Couture noted that the event was a success overall despite the low turnout. The main issue was the timing of the event at 4pm on a Thursday while classes were still going on. It was suggested to schedule the event on Friday at 4pm for potential future Career Days.
Next, Jerry Zhu, Coordinator of External Affairs, announced new partnerships for student discounts at Thai Express, Ono Pokii and Mei Wei on MariEats! Congress members discussed implementing an authentication process to ensure the app’s exclusivity to Marianopolis students. However, Jerry, along with Thomas Braun, VP of Finance, is concerned that an authentication process may limit the use of the app and consequently, disincentivize restaurants from partnering with MariEats. Before making more decisions, Congress is waiting to receive the statistics for the app.
Furthermore, Congress members addressed the annual General Assembly, set tentatively for late April. During the General Assembly, Congress will go over its activities throughout the year and hold a constitutional review. On a similar note, Meghan proposed a change to President and Vice-President elections this semester; instead of the candidates running in slates, both the President and Vice-President will be voted in from the same team. This suggestion was met with a mixed reaction. Many Congress members weighed the benefits and downsides of the modification, such as the difficulty of having a President and Vice-President with different platforms and students not wanting to vote both candidates in. In order to amend the election process for this semester, Congress must vote on it, but Si Ming Lin, Coordinator of Student Advocacy, raised the issue of conflict of interest. Subsequently, a motion to later vote on this election amendment failed.
On the other hand, Louis Yoon, Member at Large, presented his project to update the club list on the MSU and bemarianopolis websites. He plans on updating the current club list in collaboration with Papercut and the Photography Club. Louis also suggested having alumni write posts about their unconventional career paths, an initiative similar to Career Day. In addition, he provided an update on the change to the official Marianopolis calculator policy. While the school is open to changing the official calculator, the science and math departments did not approve the calculator presented, Casio fx-300ES PLUS, since there are problems with its calculations of operations. If you have any suggestions for potential calculators, feel free to contact Louis Yoon.
Additionally, Sophie Cao, Coordinator of Charities and Volunteering, noticed that many students were looking for volunteering opportunities, but were unaware of where to find them. To make things easier, the Charities and Volunteering committee plans on making a Google Calendar comprising of dates, descriptions and contact emails for volunteering events accessible to everyone.
In other news, Congress’s free food event this month will be Fairmont bagels. Look out for a tasty breakfast sometime in the upcoming weeks!
Lastly, Marianopolis is moving toward becoming a smoke-free campus. Recently, the school has been given out fines to those who vape within the school. The move toward a smoke free will be gradual, starting with cigarettes, before being fully reached by next semester.
