Hurricane relief topped the agenda of yesterday’s Student Senate meeting, as discussions focused on the “Three Weeks for Relief” campaign and a new resolution aimed at assisting displaced students who are now attending SMU.
The Senate-driven “Three Weeks for Relief” campaign, initiated last week, has already raised thousands of dollars in donations. Plastic jars with the Senate and Red Cross’ insignias have been provided to students to collect donations. At last Saturday’s football game one student was able to collect over $1200. Students can also purchase Three Weeks for Relief T-shirts for $10, and all proceeds will be donated to the relief fund.
“I hope that we will be able to contribute as much as possible,” Student Body President Liz Healy said. “Our goal was to have every student aware of the ‘Three Weeks for Relief’ campaign. I think we’re pretty much there.”
Dedman II Senator Ben Hatch and Engineering Senator Reid Varner submitted a resolution to publicly express the condolences of the students’ association to Tulane students who have been affected by the hurricane. The senators hope the resolution will act as a tool for creating and implementing ways of assisting the displaced students from Louisiana who have enrolled at SMU.
The resolution is a separate effort from the “Three Weeks for Relief” campaign, as all donations and relief efforts will directly affect the students who are now attending SMU.
“We really think this is important,” Hatch said. “A lot of people don’t need more supplies, but there are other things this university could do to make their experience here better.”
One suggestion made by the senators was to create a fund that would help newly enrolled students buy textbooks.
Hatch and Varner hope that all the small efforts to assist displaced students can be combined in this single resolution to better affect change.
“It would be really easy to approve and ignore this resolution, but the last thing we want to do is just go through the motions,” Varner said. “Get in touch with us, make suggestions.”
MTV-U, the college network of MTV, will be filming on campus tomorrow, covering SMU’s hurricane relief efforts and following affected students.
Another important item of business discussed at the meeting was the first-year Senate election. The polls will be open until 7 p.m. today to elect five of the 28 first-year Senate candidates.
