The Student Government Organization (SGO) held its first meeting of the year on Monday evening in the Cole Assembly Room.

Led by SGO President Michelle Oliveros-Larsen '02, the group worked to formulate an agenda of major issues it plans to address this year. Topics of discussion included class scheduling, the add/drop period, Saturday classes, changes in departmental requirements and parking safety.

Many members of the SGO expressed frustration with the fact that different classes in the same department are often scheduled during the same time slot, limiting students' abilities to take more than one class a semester in a specific department.

The SGO, which has long struggled with the problem of class scheduling, discussed methods of petitioning the faculty and administration for a wider variety of class times.

"There's no limit to the things we can do," said Marisol Thomer '03E, who suggested tabling and letter writing to the faculty as ways of effecting change.

"We've got nine months left if we get started on this now," said Oliveros-Larsen, referring to the need to turn discussion into results.

"We keep bringing up the same things every year ... I don't think we have to be disrespectful, but I think we can garner a lot more power than we have now. But it's up to us to claim it," she said.

Although some SGO members were in favor of solving the problem by offering more afternoon and evening classes, Oliveros-Larsen pointed out that not only do evening classes restrict students from participating in extra-curricular activities, but time slots are offered according to faculty preference.

"Nobody really has the right to tell the faculty what to do," she said.

Another topic of discussion was the add/drop period. Many student representatives at the meeting said they felt limited in their ability to add or drop a class late in the shopping period for a variety of reasons.

"Professors regard the add/drop period as the real start of classes, while students look at it as a shopping period," said Julie Babayan '03.

Babayan added that concerns about catching up with work missed during the first two weeks, as well as the possibility of over-enrollment, make students reluctant to add or drop a class, which is contrary to the purpose of the add/drop period.

Tom Scott-Craig '03 voiced his frustration at being removed from a class late in the shopping period due to over-enrollment, only to find that many of the other classes he was interested in were full as well.

He suggested professors be required to notify students if they were being dropped from classes by an early date in the shopping period, to allow them to find another class before most of them fill up.

The SGO decided to consider looking at how other institutions address the add/drop period in hopes of making it easier for students to select their classes in the future.

In light of scheduling, the SGO also discussed the process of reapproving the college calendar, which will begin this week. The discussion sparked debate over whether there was any value in holding Saturday classes during the first week of school.

Ben Baum '03 said that the tradition of holding Saturday classes on the first Saturday of the academic year is "really inappropriate."

Many SGO members said they thought that the classes compounded the stress of starting a new academic year, especially for freshmen adjusting to the rigors of college academics.

Another subject of concern raised by several members of the SGO was the frequent changes in departmental major requirements and the problem this poses to students attempting to complete their major.

Many SGO members said that the problem arises when students go abroad and return the following year as a senior to find that control of a department has shifted, and the major requirements have been changed.

Several seniors reported that they arrived this fall to find that courses that had previously been accepted to fulfill major requirements were no longer acceptable, leaving them little time to complete them.

"I do not think that department policies should vary year to year depending on who's there," said Oliveros-Larsen.

Finally, the SGO addressed parking safety, an issue that assumed renewed significance in light of recent burglaries in O'Connell parking lot.

Zeeya Jamal '02 and four other students reportedly had stereo systems stolen from their cars on Sunday evening while they were parked in O'Connell.

Although cameras were installed in the Hills lot after similar incidents last year, the cameras are hidden from view. SGO members suggested that placing the cameras in plain sight and posting warning signs about their whereabouts, as well as installing them in all parking lots, could deter criminals.