Photo courtesy of unsplash.com
Student Senate met for its weekly meeting Thursday, Feb. 20. The meeting began with a special order from Associate Director of Strengths Coaching and Ethical Leadership Development Stacey Zimmerman to discuss the changes to both June and August orientation for the upcoming year.
June orientation will be cut back to two days: Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20. This change will increase the opportunity for students to meet their peers and create a more equal distribution. August orientation will run Thursday, Aug. 20 (for first-year honors students) to Saturday, Aug. 23.
Zimmerman brought a tentative schedule to the senate floor to gain feedback and discuss opportunities to partner on certain events. Senators discussed move-in, the pledge of integrity, the First-Year Walk and other events.
The meeting then moved onto the Oath of Office for the newly elected junior representative.
During student comments and announcements, sophomore Cece Sadek asked if Campus Security planned to hold a “Food for Fines” event during the spring semester. Director of Campus Security Andrew Powell explained that they don’t see it as necessary because they view it as a type of amnesty program.
“By now you should know where you can and can’t park,” Powell said.
The meeting then moved onto administrative reports, starting with Vice President for Student Life Dr. Celestino Limas. He first announced that the Psychology Club is sponsoring Fresh Check Day this year, Saturday, March 28.
Limas then told senators that he is working with Campus Security to install a new software to record their incoming calls for quality assurance. Calls will only be recorded while they’re in the office; if the call is transferred, the recording will stop. There will also be a message before the call begins which explains that it will be recorded.
He also said that the Tournament of Participants will now fall under the responsibility of Student Senate’s traditions committee. This semester’s event will be held Wednesday, March 25.
Limas finished by explaining that Dining Services will now have a representative at Student Senate meetings to provide a report and answer questions.
Executive Chef Tate Morgan then answered multiple questions. He explained that Dining Services is working to improve the Marketplace menu and are in the process of trying to improve the Marketplace on weekends. When questions were raised about serving raw meat, Morgan said to “rest assured, we temp everything.” He added that if there’s any doubt, students should bring the food to a cook for an expert opinion and to fix it if there’s a problem.
Assistant Director of Student Activities Zac Pace said that the street sign event Wednesday, Feb. 19 was a “wild success.” Pace also mentioned that there are now 99 student organizations on campus, with more clubs set to be approved soon.
During Powell’s report, he informed senators that if someone sees a car with its lights on or something else of that manner, they should call Campus Security because they will be able to track down the owner if it’s a registered car.
Interim Assistant Director of Residence Life Michelle Henry provided the statistics for the most recent academic performance reports. Henry reported that 1,181 students received kudos and explained that the system’s default is to provide no feedback, which means the professor actively chose to give a student a kudos.
During executive cabinet reports, junior senate treasurer Matthew Hetrick said that the finance committee approved three club funding requests: Psychology Club, Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA) and Circle K.
Senators then had a constitutional learning session to learn more about the qualifications and responsibilities of the executive cabinet positions. Due to time, the scheduled committee elections were tabled.
Student Senate meets every Thursday at 3:45 p.m. in Hoover 212.
Jessica Freels is the Class of 2022 President in Student Senate.
