Three items of legislation appeared on the Senate agenda Tuesday: one regarding trash services in the graduate halls, another regarding game day parking in the law garage and the last regarding the rechartering process for campus organizations.
Currently, there are no trash rooms in the graduate dorms – Hawk, Moore and Martin – in which residents can dispose of their waste. The resolution authored by Student Body President Alex Mace calls for Resident Life and Student Housing to designate trash rooms in those buildings in which trash cans and recycling bins will be placed.
The second resolution was prompted by the Oct. 18 home football game. Usually on the day of a home game, all student parking is redirected from Binkley Garage and other lots on the south side of campus to the Law Garage and lots on the north side. This system works reasonably well on weekends, but this past Thursday’s game was in the middle of the week, and caused much inconvenience to law students taking night classes since they couldn’t park anywhere.
Law students already pay fees to use the Law Garage on the north side of campus.
However, because of those spots being taken by many undergraduates, the law students were unable to park there, and thus had to pay to park elsewhere. In some cases, classes were even canceled.
The resolution authored by Sen. Christopher Cornell encourages the SMU Athletic Department to “manage on-campus parking in such a way that on the days of weekday home football games enough spaces are kept open for the use of law students.”
The last resolution, authored by Sen. Emily McIntosh and Organizations Chair Jacob Watts, amended the process of rechartering an organization. Previously, if an organization had lost its charter, when it reapplied it would have the same standing as a completely new organization.
This resolution amends the temporary status period to only one semester for an organization that has lost its charter within the past four years.
These resolutions are to be voted on next week.
During the speaker’s podium segment of the meeting, A’Rielle Gatlin, president of the National Panhellenic Council, announced that several organizations will be performing their step show at Pigskin Revue on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“Homecoming is a time of unity,” Gatlin said. “In light of the recent sign vandalism, this comes at an appropriate time.”
Last month, a Boulevard sign that said “MSA” was vandalized. Many Muslim students feared that the MSA sign, which was actually a sign for the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs was mistaken as a sign for the Muslim Students Association.
Tickets for the event are currently on sale until Friday for $5, and will be available for purchase on Saturday for $10.
Travis Carlile addressed the chamber and asked them to extend Alpha Kappa Psi’s charter. The business fraternity’s charter was considered for revocation due to an absent signature on their Mandatory Organization Meetings (MOM) meeting sheet.
President Alex Mace voiced his support for the organization: “[Alpha Kappa Psi] makes a big impact on campus, and is sponsored by one of the best professors on campus [Barbara Kincaid of the Cox School of Business].”
It was decided that the organization’s simple error was not egregious enough to warrant a loss of recognized status, and the Senate voted to extend the group’s charter.
Alpha Kappa Psi, the second largest business fraternity on campus, offers its members networking opportunities critical to future employment.
