SBP Mary Cooper cuts cabinet from 45 to 27

Student body president Mary Cooper revealed her choices for chairmen of her administration’s cabinet committees Sunday night.

But more surprising than the their names was a number — 27.

The number of cabinet committee chairmen Cooper will oversee represents a stark reduction from the 45 under her predecessor, Hogan Medlin — but within the range of 25 to 30 cabinet members Cooper said her administration would have earlier this month.

She said merging committees with similar missions and visions will streamline the student government’s executive branch.

“Sometimes when you have committees with similar goals and missions, there’s confusion as to what a committee’s responsibility is,” she said. “Committees will feel more empowered and inspired when they have a clearer mission.”

One way Cooper was able to cut the number of committees was by combining current ones.

For example, the multicultural affairs and diversity outreach committee is a combination of the gender equality, multicultural affairs and outreach committees.

Cooper said the combined committee will be able to provide more voices to the discussion of issues such as gender neutral housing and bathrooms.

Cooper’s platform features a vision for each committee, and committee chairmen have their own ideas as well.

Arts advocacy

One of Medlin’s prominent projects was further emphasis on the arts through the creation of an Arts Innovation Steering Committee.

Cooper said the arts advocacy committee will continue to build on the foundation Medlin laid.

Ben Neal, arts advocacy committee co-chairman, said the committee will also advocate for underrepresented art forms.

“Usually music, dance and drama are shown,” Neal said. “We really want to branch out and work with the communications department and advocate for film as an art form as well.”

Neal also said he hopes the committee will host an ethical photography workshop.

Environmental affairs

Cooper said she wants to focus on collaboration with other environmental groups. To achieve this, the committee will implement EcoHarmony, an online project aimed at helping students choose between environmental groups.

This year, the committee started EcoRep, a program aimed at educating students on recycling and campus sustainability, said Megan Gyoerkoe, environmental affairs committee co-chairwoman.

The group also installed recycling bins at Granville Towers and at the Dean Smith Center.

Gyoerkoe also hopes to help less-publicized environmental groups have tables at Fall Fest so that people will be more aware of what the environmental groups are, she said.

First-year focus

This year’s first-year focus committee will look to organize events for freshmen.

Jeremy Miller, co-chairman of the committee, said the group hosted tailgate events for freshmen not involved in the Greek system.

Miller added that he is committed to making the group more efficient by eliminating the use of three subcommittees.

“We want to be a little more straightforward this year so we can actually get events done in a more timely fashion that are more interactive and easier for first-years to get involved with,” Miller said.

One project Miller said he aims to accomplish is the creation of a website with a list of the top 10 classes for freshmen, along with a list of the top 10 professors whose classes incoming freshmen should take.

Although Cooper has a vision for each of the committees, she said she hopes to give the chairmen leeway to implement their own visions.

“We have met with all of the committee (co-chairmen) to go through the platforms and actions to have it be not my platform but to be our platform,” Cooper said.

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