Each semester, senators for the Student Government Association are required to work on initiatives, or projects, to improve an aspect of the university.
Last semester, senators pursued initiatives across campus, and while some initiatives did not materialize, others have become actualized changes. They discussed the outcome of their work at the senate meeting Jan. 19.
Some of the successful initiatives included designing a new student I.D, removing the odor from Monroe Hall, organizing the boards in the Danna Center and planning an event that will show students how to run for student government positions.
Although other initiatives did not come together by the end of the semester, many of the senators are continuing to work on them.
SGA vice president and English junior Maria Rossi noted that many of the senators took on challenging projects.
‘I appreciate how ambitious their initiatives are,’ she said.
Michael Kammer, biochemistry junior and president of the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences, started working on a campus-wide initiative to instate aluminum recycling in the residential halls.
Though the initiative was unable to be fully implemented last semester due to a lack of funding for recycling bins and pushcarts, Kammer is continuing to work on it.
‘Now we’re going to put the bins on one floor (or several floors),’ Kammer said. ‘We’re going to do a trial.’
Through this, Kammer said he hopes to gauge how much residents will participate in the program.
Similarly, president of the College of Music and Fine Arts and music education sophomore Michael Morin is continuing his initiative to provide more practice space for music students.
A lack funding prevented the initiative from moving forward last semester, but Morin said that working on the initiative helped with communication between himself, the college senators and the dean.
Now, Morin is looking into getting SGA to fund the changes.
‘I think knowing that there are solutions coming and knowing that they are on the way will make my constituents very happy,’ Morin said.
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