This Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting largely focused on the future of the University and the senate.

The meeting started with a presentation on Recyclemania, an intercollegiate recycling competition in which schools compete to produce the most recycling per captia. The eight week competition’s goal is to raise awareness and encourage recycling on college campuses.

Vice President of Academic Affairs, Manoj Patankar, presented to the senate on the structure of Saint Louis University’s strategic plan. The plan, which was approved by the Board of Trustees, calls for the Deans and Vice Presidents of the University to begin to develop their own plans for their respective areas. Patankar said that the university is currently in the process of building teams and structures while collecting input from various stakeholder groups, including students, faculty and staff.

Patanker also talked of University plans to improve the core experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students and ways in which he hopes to see SLU become more globalized.

Flats Senator, Krishi Peddada, questioned how the strategic plan hoped to increase the school’s rankings.

“We have been talking about how to improve rankings across the board,” Patankar said. “We are shooting for the top 50, but we want to focus on improving student interaction and quality of education as well.”

Education and Public Service Senator, Nathan Klosterman, asked about the process by which the University has started assessing the academic departments and colleges. Patanker said that the plan involves using old and new processes to assess the effectiveness of the various academic programs, looking at how they can be improved or how they could be presented in different ways.

Patankar also presented on plans to improve the quality of research on Frost Campus to update classrooms and the plans concerning the new Law School Building.

After the presentation, the senate turned to new business, passing bills to seat two new senators and confirm the appointment of a new staff officer of promotions. A bill to amend the constitution of the Diversity Leadership Cabinet to give voting power to all twelve member of DLC voting power has been tabled until next week.

Finally, a bill was passed to express gratitude for the donation of the AT&T building as a location for the new law school building.

“We wanted to express how we felt in a resolution from the student body,” said author of the bill and Law School Senator, Grant Fransworth.

The meeting closed with SGA President Matt Ryan’s State of the Association Address.  The State of the Association Address is historically given in the last SGA meeting of January; it looks at the accomplishment of senate thus far and details plans for the future.

Ryan promised that despite the upcoming SGA elections, his executive board will not be moving into a lame duck session. So far, the senate has finalized plans to renovate the library, conclude the Oath of Inclusion, and to improve updates via social media while creating better outlets for transparency. Ryan also said that SGA has set funding guidelines that focused on financial responsibility, pushed for improvements to the Vandeventer field and the Bauman Eberhart building, implemented SLU Groups, and made sure student voices were heard on the Housing and Security policies.

Despite these accomplishments, Ryan stated he was not satisfied and that more can be achieved.

“There is one set of people who can do that,” Ryan said, “and it is all the people in this room.”

Ryan stated he wants to see more work done by the senate outside the meeting, including promoting the Oath of Inclusion to make changes on campus and taking a closer look at SLU’s Speaker and Performance Policy.

This Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting largely focused on the future of the University and the senate.

The meeting started with a presentation on Recyclemania, an intercollegiate recycling competition in which schools compete to produce the most recycling per captia. The eight week competition’s goal is to raise awareness and encourage recycling on college campuses.

Vice President of Academic Affairs, Manoj Patankar, presented to the senate on the structure of Saint Louis University’s strategic plan. The plan, which was approved by the Board of Trustees, calls for the Deans and Vice Presidents of the University to begin to develop their own plans for their respective areas. Patankar said that the university is currently in the process of building teams and structures while collecting input from various stakeholder groups, including students, faculty and staff.

Patanker also talked of University plans to improve the core experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students and ways in which he hopes to see SLU become more globalized.

Flats Senator, Krishi Peddada, questioned how the strategic plan hoped to increase the school’s rankings.

“We have been talking about how to improve rankings across the board,” Patankar said. “We are shooting for the top 50, but we want to focus on improving student interaction and quality of education as well.”

Education and Public Service Senator, Nathan Klosterman, asked about the process by which the University has started assessing the academic departments and colleges. Patanker said that the plan involves using old and new processes to assess the effectiveness of the various academic programs, looking at how they can be improved or how they could be presented in different ways.

Patankar also presented on plans to improve the quality of research on Frost Campus to update classrooms and the plans concerning the new Law School Building.

After the presentation, the senate turned to new business, passing bills to seat two new senators and confirm the appointment of a new staff officer of promotions. A bill to amend the constitution of the Diversity Leadership Cabinet to give voting power to all twelve member of DLC voting power has been tabled until next week.

Finally, a bill was passed to express gratitude for the donation of the AT&T building as a location for the new law school building.

“We wanted to express how we felt in a resolution from the student body,” said author of the bill and Law School Senator, Grant Fransworth.

The meeting closed with SGA President Matt Ryan’s State of the Association Address.  The State of the Association Address is historically given in the last SGA meeting of January; it looks at the accomplishment of senate thus far and details plans for the future.

Ryan promised that despite the upcoming SGA elections, his executive board will not be moving into a lame duck session. So far, the senate has finalized plans to renovate the library, conclude the Oath of Inclusion, and to improve updates via social media while creating better outlets for transparency. Ryan also said that SGA has set funding guidelines that focused on financial responsibility, pushed for improvements to the Vandeventer field and the Bauman Eberhart building, implemented SLU Groups, and made sure student voices were heard on the Housing and Security policies.

Despite these accomplishments, Ryan stated he was not satisfied and that more can be achieved.

“There is one set of people who can do that,” Ryan said, “and it is all the people in this room.”

Ryan stated he wants to see more work done by the senate outside the meeting, including promoting the Oath of Inclusion to make changes on campus and taking a closer look at SLU’s Speaker and Performance Policy.