Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

Village Council programs are more student oriented

By Alisa Crider

awcrider@vwc.edu

Recently Residence Life introduced the new and improved  Hall Council, now known as Village Council. The changes are not drastic. Last year s Hall Council limited the type of student representatives to one hall, such as having a jury from just East in Village II. Now there will be one volunteered student from every village to be on the council as a fair representation of the residents on campus.

These students have an important job representing the student body, and as such will get first pick in housing selection for their class.

Hall council is defined as a hearing body for disciplinary cases in which elected students are involved. Assistant Director of Residence Life Carrie Campbell and Village Coordinator Aaron Johnston, lead these meeting Thursday nights.

At Village Council meetings students receive a fair chance before getting a sanction for their reported incident.

 Within these meetings there are at least three student representatives from the campus that hear any specific case and come to an agreeable resolution, said Aaron Johnston, VI Coordinator.

The leader of the meeting, either Campbell or Johnston, will start off by debriefing the cases that are going to be covered during that meeting. They discuss one incident at a time, while the others wait for their turn outside the room. The RAs read their communication reports out loud. After the report is read the student has a chance to give his or her side of the story or make additional comments. Then the student will leave the room. The village council members and RAs then discuss the sanction for the student.

 I think having fellow students govern Village Council is a good idea, said Devin Crosby, a VII hall council member.  The students involved in the cases feel more comfortable, and the student representatives can relate to their fellow students.

The sanctions offered to the students include anything from campus work service to probation or, depending upon the severity of the incident, sometimes even administrative action. After the sanction has been decided among the council members the student may return to the room. The student is offered the sanction and can accept or decline the offer. If they choose to decline, they will be sent to the Community Relations Council or, depending on the severity, the Community Arbitration Board.

The order in these Village Council meetings has not changed drastically, but there is a new addition to the council that will allow all residents to become involved. Town hall meetings, which will soon be held once a month in each village, are open to all residents to attend. These meetings will be led by village assistants Kristen Butts, Melissa Fowler and Ashley Ladyman.

 We re hoping that town hall meetings will engage students in the residential community by giving them a place to talk about issues, brainstorm about program ideas and just socialize with the people in their respective villages, said Campbell.

Village I was the first to initiate this new community meeting. The other villages plan on following its lead soon.

 Village I had our first town meeting and it was very successful, Kristen Butts, VI assistant said.  We had a turn out of about 30 people. We invited Dean Buckingham to talk about vandalism and painted two chairs to replace others that had been vandalized.