Student Senate met Tuesday to discuss a hefty amount of campus legislation, including taking action to get SMU students to the Curtis Curwell Center in Garland, Texas for the upcoming men’s basketball games.
President Ramon Trespalacios, along with Dedman Senator John Bonadelle and student Billy Nayden have arranged for a bus to take students from campus to the game against Texas State University on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The bus will leave campus at 5 p.m., and students interested in joining should RSVP to [email protected]. If student demand is high enough, Senate will arrange for more than one bus to transport students in the future.
“We are focusing on community and we believe that athletic events are a great way to foster community between different spheres on campus. There is a lot of excitement around the basketball season, and Senate feels the need to support the student needs everyday,” Trespalacios said.
The front offices on campus are supportive of these efforts and have provided funding for the buses.
The Senate, which meets every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center forum, also discussed the ever-pressing issue of campus parking.
A parking task force has been created within the Senate to present recommendations from the student body to the parking offices on campus. The task force, headed by Dedman Senator Zane Cavender, works with Mark Rhodes, director of Parking and ID Card Services, to create solutions.
“Virtually we’re losing every on campus parking lot that isn’t a garage in the next five to 10 years,” Cavender said.
Solutions to fix the parking issue included eliminating first-year parking options, parking counts on the outside of garages, and differentiated a.m./p.m. parking.
According to Cavender, Rhodes is proactively trying to fix the parking issue, and encourages students to contact him with suggestions and concerns.
“Whatever is requested I will put in the master sheet sent to Mark Rhodes, and it will definitely be included in our discussion,” said Cavender, who can be reached at [email protected].
There is also an upcoming Facebook push, which will present polls for SMU students to take part in and comment on their parking suggestions.
“Some of the parking issues will be partially addressed in the spring, like the numbers on the garages. Some of the other ideas have a greater chance of going into effect for the next year,” Cavender said.
Other legislation presented to the chamber included adding the SMU Values Statement into the convocation speech, working with Greek life and other campus organizations to take a stance on social issues, and creating a survey for first-year students to complete at the end of their enrollment period to rate his or her advisor.
The suggested survey would be formatted similarly to the course evaluations that students currently fill out.
“This will help not only advising, but also helps students interact with advisors more,” Dedman Senator Elliott Bouillion said.
For a complete list of the minutes of the meeting and ways to contact Student Senate, students can visit http://www.smu.edu/Orgs/StudentSenate.
Senate will reconvene on Dec. 3 at 3:30 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Forum. All SMU students and faculty are invited and encouraged to join and take part in the discussion.
