Just a short while ago we wrote about UPUA’s summer plans and their agenda for the coming semester. CCSG is also gearing up for a productive summer and working their way toward laying the groundwork for a phenomenal fall.

CCSG is working on a number of projects for the fall which require a lot of research and planning. Mo Raouda and Peter Khoury are working on creating a 90 day-plan for the fall to outline every committee’s goals, goals of the caucus, budget required to meet these goals and a plan of action to achieve all that was outlined. The committees include: student life, student affairs, governmental and academic.

CCSG is working on the following goals:

• Developing a transition process for incoming students from the Commonwealth campuses. They hope that this will ease the experience of transitioning from different campuses and allow students to gain the most from their experience at University Park. Specifically, the goal is to maximize the academic and extra curricular opportunities for new transfers.

• Initiatives to make CCSG council weekends more effective. CCSG aims to invite more speakers to bring to light issues which concern the Commonwealth, and allow for CCSG to take action and resolve these issues. This will be a product of the caucus system being developed. This system aims to bring campuses together that share similar problems and talk to campus administrative experts to resolve these issues.

• The Governmental Affairs committee is researching ways to improve upon last year’s Capital Day. This event has been a success in previous years and has aided CCSG’s goal to raise awareness about PSU’s tuition rates. They hope to continue to do so by planning events in the fall to raise additional awareness and serve as rally points to build up to Capital Day.

• The Student Affairs committee is  working on finalizing a plan for the IT fee. They are also looking for a way to structure the IT Advisory Committee to give students in the Commonwealth and at University Park student representation on how the IT money is spent. This is very important as that is our largest student fee and students deserve a voice in its dispersal.

• The Academic Affairs committee is working on the Mymap idea, presented back in February. This will hopefully allow for eLion to become more interactive and user-friendly. CCSG is also researching ways to make eLion a central hub for students to access their information.

• Additionally, they are aiming to revamp the CCSG website and make it more interactive, including more tabs on online initiatives for CCSG. These include a central advising page with student recommendations for different classes, majors and career paths. This will also include information and updates from all the colleges and various majors. This information will serve as an important resource in the student transitioning process.

• CCSG is continuing its pursuit of Grade Replacement, an academic policy that would allow students to replace the grades of up to two classes while at PSU, contingent on retaking the class in question. The lower grade from the class is dropped in favor of the higher one. This policy is aimed to encourage motivated students to achieve greater heights while at Penn State and reward them accordingly.

CCSG is not working on these initiatives alone however. Several initiatives are being worked on in concert with UPUA, such as:

attaining student representation on the IT Fee, as well as improvements to the eLion system by exploring Mymap, the BYU registration system.

UPUA and CCSG maintain strong communication and look forward to working together on new projects towards the start of the fall. This collaboration may prove exciting as both governments are looking to enhance and improve the opportunities PSU has to offer. Using the summer as a springboard in to the fall is key in achieving CCSG’s goals.