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Thelma Achidi
Professor Grant
UWRT 1101-032
3 December 2014
Freshman Class Council
There is little knowledge about the Freshman Class Council at UNC Charlotte; many
students do not realize the importance or value behind joining student government. Some people
think that student council is just a popularity contest when in reality the members are striving to
make the school better for everyone. This discourse community wants to continue to let people
know who they are and what they have going on. The observations in this paper will show that
Freshman Class Council wants to get the voice of the students heard.
The goal of Freshman Class Council is to provide leadership and to serve the student
body, school, and community. We are trying to become an athletic school in the next four years,
we need to push it out, we need people to come to the games and everything we do needs to tie in
athletics (Brandon). Freshman Class Council is the voice of the students at Charlotte. Elected
members speak on behalf of the students on matters that concern the class. The council gathers
information from students and relays it to the advisor, who helps put all of the ideas into motion.
The most common mechanisms of intercommunication are telephones, emails, weekly inperson meetings. The discourse community uses an app called GroupMe which allows
members to have a group message. Through the app, The President and his Cabinet are able to
easily communicate with each other in a way where the information is visible to anyone in the

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message. Emails are sent out weekly to remind people of meeting dates and also activities that
are coming up. The council has weekly meetings on Thursdays at 6pm and during the meeting
ideas, events, and information about what we are planning to do in the future is discussed.
The mechanism the group uses to primarily provide information and feedback is
OrgSync. OrgSync allows us to link things together such as emails, meeting minutes, and
upcoming activities. When people join the Freshman Class Council page administrators such as
the president and directors are able to communicate with them easily. They are able to generate a
spreadsheet with all the emails and can even make sub categories when they just want to email a
certain group of people. Also, through OrgSync the group can let people know about events
coming up, have polls, assign tasks, post forms and even upload pictures.
The main genres Freshman Class Council communicates with are text messages, emails,
and online posts. Text messages are mostly used between the directors and president because
they have to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Emails are used to let everyone know
what is happening that particular week and to also inform people about things they might have
missed. Online posts are made through OrgSync and it helps keep track of everything in a very
organized way where anyone can view it with ease.
There are many different lexi in this community because of how big it is. Some of the
lexis includes the branches of student government and the positions that people hold in Freshman
Class Council. Many people dont know that student government has three branches: executive,
legislative and judicial. Most also dont know about the different positions which are held. In
Freshman Class Council there is a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Director of
Programming, Director of Athletics, Director of Funding, Director of Community Engagement,
Director of Marketing, and Class Representatives.

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There are various members in the Freshman Class Council. There is a lot of diversity in
the community because no one is discriminated against and anyone who is a freshman has a right
to join and at least become a Representative. There is an advisor who is in charge of making sure
that everything is running smoothly. Before certain events happen we have to get approval from
the advisor. The advisor is considered the expert in this community because he has the most
knowledge and control over us. The President is also an expert because he has a lot of access to
certain things and he is able to give us an inside scope. The President is in charge of the council
and he presides over all the meetings. The representatives are considered the newcomers because
they are below everyone else. They dont really know what is going on and they just listen to
what their specific director tells them to do. They are there to help assist the directors with
different programs.
There are conflicts in the community due to everyone voicing their opinions about
different topics. I think most of the conflicts are related to authority because the person with the
most power ultimately has the final say. A stereotype that exists among outsiders of the Council
is that only the President has power. Due to the size of our council and different titles each
member holds the power is equally distributed. Some participants have trouble working with
others in the community because they want to be in charge and they are not always willing to
take other peoples thoughts into consideration. Elected into his position, the President has
authority in the community. He is in charge of everything that goes on, under the guidance of our
advisor. The elements of belonging that the newcomers must learn are how to effectively
communicate ideas, participate in events, come up with ideas, and learn how to get along with
different types of people. It helps the group because it allows us to be a whole instead of
fragmented groups.

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According to the Freshman Class Council President, Brandon Rotimi, the purpose of
this discourse community is to help freshmen become accustomed to UNCC and to allow them
to voice their opinions so that we can help bring change in the next four years. This community
wants to make changes on campus and strives to do so by letting people know who they through
events. Good things come from their work because they are striving to make a positive impact
on campus, not just for their community, but for everyone. Meeting their goals is beneficial to
the larger society around them because the needs and ideas of people are heard and the solutions
allow adjustments.

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Works Cited:
"Freshman Class Council." OrgSync. OrgSync, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
Rotimi, Brandon. Personal interview. 14 November 2014.