All summer, the members of the Saint Louis University Student Government Association have been dreaming, planning and building a foundation for the upcoming school year. SGA leaders have said that they want to exceed expectations and plan to have a successful and productive year.
“I think our huge advantages [are] in all of the careful planning we’ve already done and how open we are to those issues and projects that could come out of the blue,” said SGA President Sam Howard.
Creating a “green campus”
One of SGA’s major objectives for the semester is working toward making SLU a “green campus.” College of Arts and Sciences Sen. Sonal Oza, Environmental Task Force Co-Chair Greg Lehn, Howard and Environmental Task Force member Spencer Kellum are putting together a presentation and proposal on the topic; they have been working throughout the summer to find current statistics of energy consumption and facilities costs. They are also going to collaborate with a professional consultant with experience in sustainability efforts.
“Looking at our current economic situation, how it directly impacts the University, we need to assess how we’re using our resources now, and then develop and implement a plan for our current and future needs,” Oza said.
Celebrating SLU traditions
SGA believes SLU traditions are defined by events on campus that bring pride to the university and should be recognized and emphasized. There is an initiative in the works that involves coining the top six SLU events as Billiken traditions and finding corporations to sponsor them.
These events will be made more prominent through media coverage on campus and in the St. Louis community, promotional giveaways from corporate sponsors and personal invites to administration, faculty and staff.
Improving Pius
College of Arts and Sciences Sen. Adnan Hussain has been appointed to Pius Library’s new Advisory Committee by Associate Provost for University Libraries Gail Staines, Ph.D. This new group will be advising Staines and David Cassens, director of Pius Library, on plans for renovating Pius in the next few years, as well as looking at other ways to meet the needs of SLU students.
“As a result of meeting with students since my arrival at SLU in 2006, Pius Library has extended library hours and opened Café Libros,” Staines said. “Café Libros was renovated over the summer and will announce longer hours within the next few weeks.”
Staines is excited about working with Hussain and an SGA committee on developments within the library to better serve the student body. From longer hours to establishing a 24-hour portion of the library to making Pius a comfortable and inviting place to study, Staines said that she is eager to plan and to help make these provisions available. ?
Enhancing on-campus dining
College of Arts and Sciences Sen. Andrew Miller, chair of the Food Services Committee, will be working with newly assigned Chartwells district manager to address dining service in the Busch Student Center. Some of the ideas include making nutrition facts of more foods available to students, providing Federal Work Study jobs for students at Chartwells and participating in the “going green” effort.
“I’m really excited to work with [Chartwells Resident District Manager] Jerry Frye,” said Miller. “It seems like he’s got a lot of good ideas, and this is his first time working for Chartwells. And coming from the food services management of the University of Alabama, he has the experience of providing dining options to larger campuses, which I think he can bring to SLU.”
Frye believes that eventually SLU can make its food services into “a showcase and strong recruiting tool for the university.”
Broadcasting SGA meetings
There has also been some collaboration between SGA and SLU TV. Leaders of both groups have discussed having all SGA meetings videotaped and shown live every Wednesday on a program called SLU-SPAN. In addition, the recording will be uploaded to SGA’s Web site and will be organized into separate segments so that students can find the discussion of any issue in which they are interested.
Initiating special projects funding
Thinking financially, SGA is considering creating a new method of special projects funding in order to make the student activity fee available to any student instead of just those involved in chartered student organizations.
The student activity fee won’t be spent entirely on CSO’s and will be invested in different things that will serve the student body in other ways.
“Financial Vice President Jonathan Perdue will be working hard with his committee to really put our money where our mouth is-we were elected to represent all students, so now we’re making the student activity fee more directly available to all students,” said Howard.
The first Senate meeting of the 2008-2008 academic year will begin at 5 p.m. on Sept. 3 in the Senate Chambers of the BSC.
Howard will preside over the meeting.
