Student Assembly President Jim Rich '96 said Winter term will be "a continuation" of what was started in the fall, as the Assembly yesterday released its agenda for the term.
The scheduled unveiling of the on-line course guide on Jan. 23 tops the Assembly's list of this term's first 11 projects which also include improving College advising and broadening the range of non-recording options available to students.
In addition to putting its course guide on-line, the Assembly plans to follow up on the request it made last term to the Committee on Procedure to revamp undergraduate advising.
The agenda includes plans for the Assembly's committee on student life to further investigate methods to improve the College's policies for pre-major guidance.
Rich said the Assembly's past research found that students were dissatisfied with the current system of advising.
"I think it is one of students' major concerns here," Rich said. "It's a growing problem."
Rich said he recently spoke with the COP and it "seemed to be extremely receptive to the Assembly's concerns about advising."
Another goal of the Assembly is to allow students to take courses with the NRO in more departments, like economics and government, which have few courses that permit NROs.
Rich said Economics 2 is the only economics course that students can NRO, which he called "absurd."
The NRO option "is for students to take a class that they're interested in and not worry about how they're going to fare in the class," he said.
Rich said he was unsure how the Assembly would go about establishing more NROs, but it is considering petitioning the individual departments or addressing the dean of the faculty.
Last term, the Assembly passed a resolution asking that the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program become a permanent part of the curriculum.
Rich said the Assembly would continue to push for the establishment of a permanent LACS department by meeting with professors and administrators. He said although student support is necessary for solidifying a department, the faculty is ultimately responsible for approving the formation of a permanent department.
Because the "Over the Hill" book, a directory of upperclassmen published independently of the College, will not be published this year, Rich said the Assembly would step in and put out a student directory along the same lines as "Over the Hill" by the middle of Spring term.
Responding to the student suicides that shocked the College in the latter half of 1995, the Assembly plans to post in public bathrooms stickers with information about suicide hotlines.
The Assembly also plans to increase the number of BlitzMail computers and pay phones on campus, according to the agenda. Also, Rich said the Assembly would push for the installation of more blue light emergency phones on campus.
Rich said the Assembly will continue to alter its constitution. The Assembly revised its constitution last spring and has been working out the kinks since then.
"It still has some quirks," Rich said.
Last term, the Assembly voted down an amendment that would have placed presidential and vice presidential candidates together on single tickets. Rich supported the measure and said it would probably come up again this term.
The Assembly's executive committee formulated the agenda.
