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Thelma Achidi
Professor Grant
UWRT 1101-032
17 November 2014
Freshman Class Council
There is little knowledge about the Freshman Class Council at UNC Charlotte but 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, the school, and the 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 and having
weekly meetings. The discourse community uses an app called GroupMe which allows you to
have a group message. Through the app The President and his Cabinet are able to easily

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communicate with each other in a way where the information is visible to anyone in the 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 we use to primarily provide information and feedback is OrgSync.
OrgSync allows us to link everything 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 even they just want to email a
certain group of people. Also through OrgSync you can let people know about events coming up,
have polls, assign tasks, post forms and even upload pictures.
The main genres we communicate 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 miss. 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 lexis in this community because of how big it is. Some of the
lexis include 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 which are held. In Freshman
Class Council there is a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Director of

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Programming, Director of Athletics, Director of Funding, Director of Community Engagement,
Director of Marketing, and Class Representatives.
There are various members in the Freshman Class Council. There is an advisor 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. I also the President an expert because he
has a lot of access to certain things and he is able to give us an inside scope. The President 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 because of everyone voices 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 so. Some participants have trouble working with others
in the community because they want to in charge and they are willing to taking 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, participation are events, coming up with ideas, and learning how to get along with
different types of people. It helps the group because it allows us to be a whole instead of multiple
pieces which are separated.
According to the Freshman Class Council President, Brandon Rotimi, the purpose of
this discourse community is to help freshman become accustomed to UNCC and to allow them

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to voice their opinions so that we can help bring change in the next four years. This community
wants to make a 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. When they meet their goals it 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.