“Books Fly Free” statement from Trevecca’s SGA

A “note” posted on Trevecca’s Student Government Association’s Facebook Wall

To Whom It May Concern:

On February 13, 2012, the Student Government Association (SGA) of Trevecca Nazarene University voted to support a new textbook policy, “Books Fly Free,” after considering the proposal for more than two months. Thankfully, some students with concerns contacted the SGA for information and the opportunity for feedback. In response, Student Government contacted administrators to create an informational meeting open to all students. This meeting was held on Thursday, March 15th in the Moore Gymnasium.

All students were made aware of the meeting through an email on February 20th, posters around campus, a Facebook event, and again in the This Week at Trevecca email on March 11th. It was expressed to students that this meeting would be the official medium to give their feedback to SGA and that all students with questions or concerns should be in attendance.

The meeting featured the manager of our local Tree of Life bookstore, Brett Blum, who was available to answer any questions about the policy. There were several well thought-out questions and Student Government members were on hand to hear all that was being said. After the meeting all students present were given a yellow sheet of paper on which to write their concerns for SGA to look over.

When recapping the informational meeting in a regularly scheduled SGA meeting on Monday, March 19th, many members felt that the most telling piece of feedback was that there were only 34 non-SGA students in attendance (4 more contacted SGA to say that they could not attend), and only 15 yellow sheets were submitted to voice disapproval.

While any statistic has a margin of error, SGA voted to stick with the original decision to endorse the Books Fly Free program by a vote of 22 to 1. From here the decision will go to the President’s Cabinet; SGA also voted to recommend that they would consider the option of allowing current Freshmen to opt out of the program as well, if that were feasible.

We appreciate having been given the opportunity over the last three months to give an informed recommendation to the President’s Cabinet, who will ultimately make the final decision.

Sincerely,

SGA

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