By Marrissa Ballard | Staff Writer
This year the Student Government Association has been working on many projects. From dinning services to safety and security, SGA has a lot on their agenda.
Salve’s SGA is currently very large, including 19 senators. A new position, the Chief Justice, has also been instituted. SGA has also received a new advisor named Jennifer Jensen, who has been at Salve for 14 years and served as an advisor before.
Some of SGA’s recent accomplishments this year include getting salad bowls in the Miley Cafeteria and getting a printer in the Miley basement.
Much of the meeting was devoted to the Dinning Services Committee’s projects. Gina Tonini, a senator on that committee, gave a full report on their progress. One ongoing project is the removal of the broken cups in Miley. The Sodexo staff has also been working to check cups more thoroughly to ensure that broken cups do not end up being used.
Another project that Tonini discussed was getting paninis on the meal plan. Many students have asked for the paninis at Wakehurst to be available on the meal plan. However, because Wakehurst cannot make enough paninis for the demand, Sodexo and SGA are working on having them available as specials at the Miley Deli station.
Students might also see more diversity at the Miley grill station as the Sodexo chefs work on specialty burgers.
The Safety and Security committee has also been quite busy. Many students had remarked that there aren’t enough blue lights on campus, so the committee and Safety and Security have been working on that issue. At first the Security office was considering putting more blue lights on campus, but has recently been working on different options.
The Safety and Security office and SGA are working on creating a new app, which will have many security features. They are still deciding on a program and company to work with, but progress has been steady. One feature that they are considering is having a GPS signal on the app that will alert security to the person’s location if they are in danger.
Since the meeting took place on Veteran’s Day, a major issue that came up is whether Salve students should have school on that day. Throughout the day many students talked about how it could be seen as disrespectful to the veterans in the Salve and Newport community. Many students questioned why we celebrate Colombus Day, but not Veteran’s Day.
SGA has taken on the issue and more information will follow. Patty Socarras will be bringing the issue up with Academic Affairs.
SGA meetings take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Ochre Court State Dining Room. The meetings are open for any students who want to attend.
To contact SGA with any concerns, feel free to check their Facebook or Twitter. Students can bring up concerns by using the hashtag #DearSalveSGA. Committee members can also be reached via email. SGA encourages students to send questions or comments so that they can address them and work to improve the campus.
