The Student Government Association (SGA) met remotely on Monday, Feb. 22 to discuss club chartering along with a special message from Dean of Students Kevin Koett. 

Koett, the open session speaker for the meeting, came with a message for students regarding asymptomatic testing and vaccinations.

“We really need to encourage those students living on campus, they’ve got to complete their bi-weekly testing. It’s really important. Remind your friends, remind your peers to be doing that,” Koett said. “We’ve done more testing in this semester to date than we did all of last semester.”

Asymptomatic testing is two days a week on Mondays and Tuesdays. To schedule an appointment for the asymptomatic saliva testing, students and employees should sign up via ProfLink.

According to Rowan, “Once an appointment is made through ProfLink, students and employees will receive an email with details about how to register with Concentric, a testing service. Everyone who signs up for an appointment must sign onto Concentric and complete a survey within 72 hours prior to their scheduled appointment.”

“Please help your peers understand that we can’t get complacent. We’re doing lots of good things. We’re getting ahead of this,” Koett said.

In regards to vaccines, Koett stated that Rowan sets an example for other institutions.

“Lots of really great things are happening related to vaccinations; we truly are one of the leaders in this area,” he said.

While there is frustration on who is eligible to receive the vaccine, Koett noted that Rowan is working off the governor’s guidelines. Aside from medical workers, law enforcement and fire personnel, persons aged 18 to 64 years old who have certain chronic medical conditions that pose a high-risk for severe COVID-19 are also eligible. 

After the message from the dean of students, the senate chartered and de-chartered SGA-affiliated organizations. Three clubs up for de-charterment, which get a three to five-minute session to explain their situation. 

One club up for de-charterment was the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Group. ABA is a treatment for autism spectrum disorder which focuses on altering behaviors of people with autism though it has recently been met with criticism. Olivia Scattergood, a junior and the senator for the club, explained that they missed senate meetings due to their executive board’s turnover rate. Since every one of their executive members graduated or left the club, and due to drastic changes from COVID-19, their attendance at SGA meetings dropped. Their ProfLink has yet to remove last year’s executive members listed.

“Any email reminders that may have been sent out by SGA haven’t actually made it to our new executive board,” Scattergood said.

Scattergood explained that the club is ready to attend meetings and that their first order of business will be to update their ProfLink page. Scattergood also mentioned that she is more aware of the responsibilities of her role as senator and that this won’t happen again.

Senators and club members had a three-minute session to ask Scattergood questions followed by a discussion period. The senate voted to place the club on probation.

The other two clubs up for decharterment, African Student Association and Camp Kesem, also faced similar situations with their executive board. Both of these clubs were also placed on probation.

Rowan Blockchain Studies Club (RBSC) was petitioning for charterment. The club’s president, Ryan Brubeck, presented information to the senate and club members about the club and what it plans to do.

“Think of RBSC as the modern internet club. Sometimes we discuss computer protocols, algorithms, hardware or mathematics,” Brubeck said.

The senate voted in favor of making RBSC a petitioning organization. Interested students don’t need technical knowledge to join the club or participate.

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