SGA President Matt Calderone outlined a sweeping shift in how the applications for student block seating will be graded for the upcoming football season in a presentation to student groups Wednesday night.
The plan involves a new third party that will grade the applications based on three criteria. Points will be awarded based on academics, leadership and the amount of community service a group completes.
This change stands in stark contrast to how the process has worked in previous years, when block seating was designated by an SGA committee.
“The main difference is that we’re removing any kind of human element,” Calderone said of the new system. “We have algorithms and point percentages to work that out, and then, the scores are taken, and the scores are made accordingly.”
Calderone explained that an independent third party, Campus Labs, will grade the applications and rank them based on the results. This would theoretically remove the chance for tampering or bias in scoring.
Megan Bryant, SGA press secretary, also strongly supports the new process because it places a high emphasis on academics.
“I think it’s great that we made academics a higher point value than anything else because that’s why we’re here,” Bryant said.
Ryan Flamerich, a senator from the College of Engineering, has high hopes for the plan, but does understand concerns from some student groups.
“I think there are concerns by non-greek organizations about obtaining GPAs for individual members,” Flamerich said.
One lingering question about how the process will work revolves around the heavy weight given to student involvement and leadership.
Flamerich said there is a high concentration of student leadership in greek organizations.
“I think we have a really diverse campus and are a campus with great leaders from every community,” Flamerich said. “But the reality is that the greek community will have predominately more leaders of student organizations [and] more community service hours than other groups.”
Paul Rand, a third year law student and president of the Student Bar Association, attended the meeting Wednesday to learn about the process.
“I think it’s important to recognize community involvement and participation in student life,” Rand said. “Football is obviously one of the more important social and community features of the University, so I think it is an appropriate venue for student organizations to be recognized for involvement and leadership. I think change is good, and I support ongoing efforts to try and accommodate a diversity of student organizations.”
Calderone also said a group with a good chance to get block seating would have a solid foundation of academics, leadership and community service.
“I would recommend that you have a pretty high average of community service per member. I recommend that you have a solid GPA, and I would recommend that you have people involved,” Calderone said.
Calderone said he did not feel that there was any chance the process could become politicized or in some way skew results toward greek organizations.
