The Campus Life Council (CLC), a Board of Trustees-mandated committee that advises the Office of Student Affairs, met Monday for an unofficial, preliminary meeting.
The 18-member council of students, faculty and administrators discussed various issues that it may take up as the foci of the three task forces that will work toward specific goals over the course of the year.
These issues include privileges for on-campus seniors, decreasing the cost of SYR's, the status of leadership on campus, gender relations, campus safety, exploration of dining hall options and decreasing the costs associated with the student-used vehicles at the Center for Social Concerns.
With recent controversial RA dismissals in mind, Student Body President Pat Hallahan introduced the idea of investigating current policies and attempting to increase flexibility in the RA training program. A heated debate ensued when a number of council members objected to spending council time on an employee-employer issue that is traditionally beyond the scope of the CLC's concern.
"As an employer, I have certain expectations of my employees, and no one is going to tell me how to hire people. I just think it's a waste of our time to pursue this issue," said George Moss, assistant vice president of Student Affairs.
It was also pointed out numerous times that the council could not discuss the specifics of any individual dismissal case because federal law prohibits the University from divulging related information,
Some of the council members grew frustrated when a proposal to investigate a seemingly important issue failed to generate unanimous support.
"As soon as we get a hot issue that students care about, we get put down. We get our agenda dictated by a minority of people," said Hallahan.
The issue of deciding task force goals will be settled during the Sept. 22 meeting.
