SMU’s Student Senate met for their weekly meeting in the basement of Hughes Trigg Student Center Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. About five non-senate students were present at the meeting.
These are some of the highlights from the meeting.
On the speaker’s podium was Rafey Anwar. Anwar is the vice president of the SMU Muslim Student Association. Anwar encouraged the Student Senate to pledge for the upcoming fast-a-thon. Anwar also asked the senate to sign a petition that would change the way that meat was processed in Umphrey Lee.
Student Body President Ramon Trepalacios said that he was going to take part in the annual light walk, which was held at 7 p.m. Students will be walking around campus at night to make sure that certain areas around campus are well lit. Trespalacios also encouraged the senate to stay until the end of the football game this weekend to support the players on the field.
A few members of the Student Senate visited USC and Loyola University’s student centers to see what changes they could make to Hughes-Trigg. Some of these potential changes included a large outdoor seating area, a workroom for organizations and a bar on campus. Members hope that the graduate students would get involved in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Renovation Task Force.
While Executive Director Jennifer Jones was on the podium, a discussion over underage drinking broke out. Many members of the Student Senate were concerned of the increasing amount of underage drinking while Boulevarding this semester. The senate discussed ways that they might decrease the amount of underage drinking. Potential solutions included putting a cap on the amount of alcohol that can be brought, advertising more awareness of underage drinking and adding more alcohol-free tents.
The final highlight of the Student Senate meeting was a proposal that was made to the Office of Information Technology. The senate discovered that many students were unhappy about the sudden change from Webmail to Office365. The proposal stated that the senate seeks to advise the Office of Information Technology to go through Student Senate whenever that make decisions that are going to impact the entire student body. The proposal was passed unanimously.
