After brief questioning and open discussion, the Student Government Association (SGA) approved the applications of three new clubs to begin working toward charter status, during its meeting on Monday.

Rowan’s chapter of Upsilon Pi Epsilon, a group involved with computing and information disciplines; the Rowan GEO club, which deals with Geography, Geology, and other subjects related to Rowan’s school of earth and the environment; and the Rowan Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Student Association will now all enter into the one-year petitioning process. If the requirements of four service projects, attendance at all Senate meetings, and properly-submitted quarterly progress reports are all met for that period, the clubs can then become chartered. If chartered, the organization would receive funding from SGA to use for club activities, as well as recognition of accomplishments from Rowan.

Upsilon Pi Epsilon Secretary Nicholas Pieros, a senior computer science major, was overjoyed that his club had been put on the path to an SGA charter. He said it will be beneficial for the group in the future.

“We’re actually looking forward to this,” he said. “We’re hoping to expand our organization, make it more prominent on campus, so we’re really happy to have this opportunity. We’re looking forward to finishing the chartering process.”

That sentiment was echoed by Caitlin Dargan, a senior urban planning major and the general senator for the GEO club. She said she’s looking forward to what eventually having SGA funding could do for the club.

“We were talking about maybe expanding our trips a little bit more,” Dargan said. “Kind of doing more funding towards going [to] different places, getting the carpools up. Having the ability to help with adding more geocaching sites to our area. That’s going to definitely help out, maybe use that to help add treasures for people to see.”

Senior history and education dual major Dalton Woodward, the treasurer of the Holocaust and genocide studies group, expressed excitement at the prospect of growing the club on campus with the backing of the SGA.

“We’re obviously very excited to be an officially-petitioned club,” Woodward said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we look forward to making this club as great as we can before we all graduate.”

During the meeting, the SGA also announced the new design for the campus shuttle, which would wrap around the sides and back of the existing shuttle buses on campus and include several common design motifs, including the Rowan mascot, the university word mark, and the torch logo.

In other events, AVP of Facilities and Operations Beth Armstrong reported that construction on campus was moving along on schedule.

Armstrong said after the meeting that her comments referred to the new Rohrer College of Business and Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering buildings. She noted that students taking business classes would likely be able to start using the building at the beginning of the spring 2017 semester.

An announcement was made about an affordability open forum to be held next Monday at 1 p.m. in Student Center room 221 B and C. The forum will touch on ways to make college more affordable for students, and will be attended by SGA President Daniel Cardona and board member Rbrey Singleton.

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