At Wednesday’s student senate meeting, senators discussed issues ranging from the Shirt Project, student health and wellness updates, revisions to the Constitution of the Undergraduate Student Body and a response to the new university housing policy.
The senate confirmed junior Kristin Andrejko as the Shirt Project President by unanimous vote Wednesday evening.
Student Union treasurer Alexandra Henderson formally nominated Andrejko. Andrejko was the senator from Walsh Hall last year and is currently studying abroad in London.
“[Andrejko] has been working on the Shirt Project since freshman year and she has a lot of experience,” Henderson said. “She’s really excited about this upcoming year.”
Student senate also passed three revisions regarding the Constitution of the Undergraduate Student Body.
The Department for Constitutional Procedures brought the revisions to the senate for a vote. The first allowed proxy members to count towards a quorum, which passed unanimously. The second revision instituted an attendance policy for senators. After four unexcused absences or seven total absences, the Student Union Ethics Commission will conduct a hearing regarding the Senator’s potential negligence. This revision passed with only one Senator in opposition and no abstentions. The third revision increased the quorum from 3/5 to 2/3 to be consistent with the requisite quorum for the Election Committee, per the Constitution. This revision passed unanimously as well.
The senate's housing policy committee is continuing to prepare for action regarding the updated housing policy.
One subcommittee is writing a letter to the administration asking specific questions regarding the policy, another is creating a survey to understand student sentiment toward the policy and the third is dealing with the proposed waiver policy and discussing how to ameliorate the waiver process.
“I’m really happy with how it’s looking so far,” Shewit said. “We’re going to continue to push for student feedback through this process.”
Jade Martinez, student government‘s director of health and wellness, presented to the senate regarding potential updates to RecSports, including creating a new fitness class plan.
Another topic the senate covered was fitness options on campus. Martinez and representatives from her department discussed a Fit Pass option which would allow students to buy a certain number of fitness classes each semester rather than sign up to attend the same class weekly.
For the department, the goal is to implement the Fit Pass as a semester long pass. The fee will allow for classes throughout the entire semester but the department has yet to decide on a class limit or if there will be multiple options for plans.
Sibonay Shewit, student body vice president, recommended a monthly membership option to alleviate the pressure of signing up for classes early in the semester.
“At the start of the semester, I may not know how many times a week I’d be able to do [a class],” Shewit said.
A trial period will be offered at the beginning of the semester, just as the fitness classes work now, but the department hopes the Fit Pass will dissuade students from signing up for classes that they might not be able to attend consistently.
“One of the biggest problems that comes from the [trial period] is the next week, all the classes fill because everyone wants a class but they don’t actually have their schedule developed,” Martinez said. “Halfway through the semester, half of the people are showing up because they can’t actually go to the classes.”
The classes will take place in the new recreation center in the Duncan Student Center, which will be much larger and feature twice as much equipment as there is currently in Rolfs, according to RecSports.
“There’s a lot of new, cool equipment that people might not know how to use, so we’re going to try to partner with tours so people can get an understanding of how to work the equipment,” Martinez.
