A communication error limited discussion to committee project agendas at the first Student Senate meeting of the year, held Wednesday night at LaFortune. At the opening of the session, student body vice president Karla Bell told senators that because an email with information about the proposed new business was never sent, debate and voting would have to be pushed back to next week's meeting.The issue in question was an amendment to change the name of the Campus Programming Council back to the Student Union Board in the Student Union Constitution. Bell reported that representatives from SUB were prepared to present their argument and suggested that senators should take the extra time to thoroughly review the proposal.In their reports, student body president Adam Istvan and chief executive assistant Dave Baron spoke with optimism on student government's prospects and potential. Istvan emphasized the successful efforts to implement the DVD rental in LaFortune, which he predicted will soon be self-sufficient, and offer the option of Fair Trade coffee on campus. Baron reported the strong interest that the student government booth at Tuesday's Activities Night garnered."We had over 200 people sign up to receive e-mails. At this rate, we'll have to make up ad hoc committees to keep them busy," joked Baron. He also mentioned the Student Government 101 night on Sept. 8 that he will hold in conjunction with Class of 2007 secretary Megan Spokes and judicial council president Brin Anderson. Its purpose is to introduce the role of student government and the issues it faces for those interested in becoming a part of it, said Baron.Committee chairs also presented their current agendas and projected goal for the next few weeks.Academic affairs chairman Vijay Ramanan outlined three goals he wants his committee to achieve by the end of October."We want to organize a Majors night, like the Activities Night, with all the department heads and some upperclassmen in the major passing out information, and we would like the dorms to do a similar event," he said. "It would also be great to create a booklet with information on all the different majors, because right now all of that is in 50 different places."The opening of the Gender Resources Center on Sept. 13 will be the main focus of the Gender Issues committee, said chair Lizzi Shappell. She added they are currently posting sexual assault awareness posters in dorm bathrooms, and hope to expand the effort to academic buildings. The committee for Residence Life - one of the largest under the Senate - will be taking on a wide variety of projects, according to chair Sarah Bates. She listed a number of the issues the committee will be looking at, including creating a "Flex 10" meal option, securing a student discount at the Bookstore, looking at the way football tickets are distributed, installing cable and satellites in dorm rooms and increasing the availability of technology in residence halls.
