By Harper Spires – [email protected] – Contributor
UNC Asheville’s International Student Association recently requested financial assistance from SGA to pay for their camping retreat the second weekend in October.
“It is important for the international students to feel welcomed on UNCA’s campus and spread the word internationally about their time spent at UNCA,” Caitie Gibbs, ISA president, said.
SGA passed the bill requesting financial assistance, which will allow many of UNCA’s international students to go on the October camping trip.
“I feel very positive about this trip for the international students, and I’m proud that it goes through Campus Recreation, because they have some great outdoor guides providing a service at a pretty low price to UNCA students,” Sen. Joe Baker said.
 
In other news:
Sens. Ben Judge, Jack Derbyshire and Jack Voelker are continuing work on the “Did You Know?” campaign. They are working on finding the best way to disseminate information to students and partnering with other organizations to be most effective.
Sens. Joe Baker, Sam Singer and Jeremy Gage are continuing work on the student focus group for SGA. It will be an opportunity for SGA to bounce ideas off and get feedback from a group of students that will represent the many different viewpoints present at UNCA. If you are interested in applying for a position on the focus group, please contact Baker at [email protected].
Sens. Baker and Charlie Bridger are examining the teacher evaluation process with hopes to improve it. They said they hope the resulting survey will be a reliable and unbiased assessment of UNCA faculty.
SGA collected many student contact reports in the past two weeks. Two of the main issues students discussed in the reports were the need for a cover or canopy over the remaining smoking areas on campus and the need for water-fill stations in the library.
“SGA has previously tried to get water-fill stations in the library for a few semesters now, and this work will be continued,” Leigh Whittaker, SGA president said.
The actual student contact reports will also be expanded to encompass a larger amount of topics and issues.
Sen. Rachel Collman is working on making more gender-neutral bathrooms available on campus and making sure existing ones are better labeled. There are currently two labeled gender-neutral bathrooms: One in the lower floor of the Justice Center, under the old box office, and one on the fourth floor of the Sherrill Center, in the health and wellness department office. The gender-neutral Sherrill Center bathroom also contains a shower.
Quick Announcements:
Sen. Paola Salas was contacted by a campus shuttle driver who would like to increase student awareness of the shuttle service. The campus shuttle is open to any student (resident or non-resident), faculty or staff member to use Monday through Friday from 7:40 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. The routes extend from the Grove Apartments, on campus, to Hawthorne Northside Apartments and include a stop at the church parking lots.
The drivers would also like to emphasize they can make stops along their route to include the CVS Pharmacy on Merrimon Ave. If students are walking along the route, they can signal to the drivers, who will stop and pick them up. Finally, the drivers would like to remind students the campus shuttles are funded by student fees and students should take advantage of the service.
Sen. Jack Derbyshire has spent the last couple of years working to bring TEDx Talks to UNCA. This year’s talks will be presented on campus in February, but auditions begin this week.  Student speaker auditions will be held in the Pinnacle in Highsmith Union on Thursday, Oct. 3, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., and Wednesday, Oct. 9, from 4:30 – 5:30 p.m.