Committee Mission/Objectives
The purpose of the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) is to help identify the needs of Student members within the Society, to grow participation by students in Society programs and services (especially within ESA meetings), and to find ways to help increase overall student membership in the Society. The SAC is the voice of the ESA student member; it advises the ESA Governing Board on matters of interest to Student members via its Student Representative to the Governing Board. It submits biannual committee reports to the ESA Governing Board.
The SAC organizes a variety of student activities (see details below) during ESA’s Annual Meeting, it publishes the annual Student Debates, produces a ‘Know Before You Go’ webinar to help students prepare for the meeting, provides oversight on student sections of the ESA website, and coordinates other special projects.
Annual Student Debates (planning subcommittee includes one chair and 3+ members):
The ESA Student Debates are lively, cross‐examination‐style debates held annually during ESA’s Annual Meeting. The Debates are an important educational, as well as entertaining component of the ESA Meeting. The work of this subcommittee is the most time-consuming of the SAC subcommittees. This group develops three debate topics, organizes six school teams and three student introduction speakers. The subcommittee previews the team and introduction PowerPoints, edit the 600-word summaries, and write the introduction for publication in a peer-review ESA’s journal (Insect Science). To accomplish the subcommittee work, it holds several email-editing sessions, ~5-8 conference calls, and publication follow-ups after the Annual Meeting. Subcommittee members should plan on attending the debates in person to help run the event at the ESA Annual Meeting.