While students filled less than half of the seats set out for them, the congressional meeting of the Student Government Association witnessed much of the same anger and debate of the town hall meeting earlier in the day.

SGA President Daniel Green, political science junior, spent much of the meeting addressing students’ concerns, which ranged from transfer problems to problems with the proposed “Pathway” restructuring plan put forth by the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J, university president.

He urged concerned students – both those with cut majors and those without – to write letters to Wildes and to the Board of Trustees.

These statements, he said at the afternoon meeting, should include “why you chose that major, your experiences, including your experiences with the professors, and right now, what you saw as your future because of your major.”

Green said he would use these statements to draft an official SGA response to the plan and would forward all the letters to Wildes and the board.

He added that his concern as SGA president was to accurately represent the voice of the students, saying that if they were pleased then the SGA resolution must reflect that.

“If, from the feedback we collect, students are saying that they’re happy with that, I have to say, ‘OK’ … but from what we have right now, students aren’t saying, ‘We like this plan; let’s go have a barbeque in Audubon Park.'”

He then opened up the floor to student concerns; there were enough to warrant a line of chairs in the back of the room for orderly questioning.

Jerry Gosin, a communications junior in broadcast production, said that low numbers of broadcast majors was deceiving since communication majors often don’t declare their sequence until right before graduation.

Gosin said that eliminating majors could alienate alumni who would otherwise donate.

“On the fourth floor (of the communications building where broadcast is housed), there’s an endowed room from a lady who died doing the work of news,” he said. “If we tear that down, we’re telling her her money isn’t welcome here.”

“I’m challenging SGA to not be pushovers in this situation … to make sure your voices are heard. A lot of times SGA is taken over by administration; this needs to be a different year,” Gosin said.

Green noted that the plan was not yet final and that Provost Walter Harris said during the town hall meeting today that all sophomores and juniors in affected programs would be allowed to finish their studies.

“Since he said it in public, we’re going to hold him to that,” said Green.

Green explained that students whose departments are slated to be cut under the strategic plan would be able to choose classes from all the university’s offerings to fulfill their requirements.

Students in programs other than broadcast journalism were adamant that their voices be heard as well.

Emily Drabek, a physics freshman, said that it was the small size of the program – and the accompanying opportunities for undergraduate research – that brought her to Loyola.

“Please don’t forget the physics program,” she said. “I know it’s not very commercialized here, but I chose this physics program because there aren’t many students, and you get the hands-on research.”

But some, like Andrew Morgan, philosophy sophomore, said that while the cuts are hard, students shouldn’t judge Wildes too harshly.

“Sheath your swords,” Morgan said. “Everyone who spoke at the town hall meeting -spears were brandished; it seemed like Father Wildes was a laughingstock. I’m surprised that people weren’t spitting.”

He added that Wildes enjoyed great popularity before Monday when the plan was released.

“I think we were going to christen him before this decision,” he said. “We love Father Wildes; he’s our greatest patron. I really want to just throw out that sentiment of ‘let’s not get carried away.'”

Many expressed concern about the domino effect of transferring students.

Jordan Hultein, a communications sophomore in broadcast production and a Biever RA said that most of his residents are not discussing which major to switch to, but rather which school to transfer to.

“The freshman class this year is not like, ‘let’s fight this out’, it’s more like, ‘Where are you going? I want to go with you.'”

Kelly Brown can be reached at [email protected].