Instead of their usual business casual or business formal attire that Student Government Association senators wear in the Senate chambers, SGA has decided to try taking on a new look for the rest of the semester.

Senate members have decided that it is time for them to break out the tool-belts, hard-hats and those undeniably bright orange vests-—sort of.

“It’s not us physically going out to fix things,” SGA President Michael Harriss said of the new initiative.
Instead of enlisting all the senators to go out themselves and accomplish some maintenance work around campus, Harriss has a more practical approach in mind.

“We’re really trying to take a different approach,” Harriss said.

He believes that students are experiencing a deficit of confidence in the systems in play.

“I feel there’s a lack of faith in the system at [Saint Louis University]. Faith in the process to respond to [students’] concerns and needs,” Harriss said. “Hopefully this project will instill that faith again.”

“SGA Fixes the Little Things” is the official title of Harriss’ new initiative that is scheduled to launch next Tuesday, Feb. 16, in the SGA weekly mailer.
As of now, if a student finds something broken or malfunctioning on campus, he or she can place a maintenance request via an online form, which is then sent to Facilities Management.

When the SGA project takes effect, a form created by SGA can be filled out and will be sent to the SGA office instead.
Once the requests are received by SGA, a response will be sent to students within 48 hours.

SGA will then decide what senators or campus offices will handle the request most efficiently.

“This is more of a mediation level between students and administration,” Harriss said.

After deciding upon how to properly handle the situation, SGA senators will attempt to resolve the maintenance issues and then inform the requesting student of the outcome.

“People listen to us a lot more, and we want to utilize that,” Harriss said.