SGA discusses concerns with campus housing and traffic

By RAEGAN NEUFELD

Tiger Media Network

Student senators voiced concerns from constituents about campus housing and traffic during the Student Government Association meeting on Thursday.

One concern is that students who are Ellis County residents are required to go home over the fall, winter and spring breaks. According to Sen. Cade Becker, he was told by Residential Life the reasoning behind the policy is the smaller number of Community Assistants over the breaks.

Sen. Noah Erichsen addressed the concern, saying the policy presents a problem for students who live on campus because of bad home situations. 

“A blanket policy for everyone’s homelife is not really a good thing to have,” he said.

He also emphasized that requests from students who have a reason for staying over breaks should not be denied.

“You’re paying for that room, you’re paying for the tuition and you’re paying to be here, so I don’t feel like that’s an appropriate thing to do,” he said.

President Ella Burrows said she will discuss the problem with Director of Residential Life RJ Schnack, but it was also brought up last year, and nothing came of it. 

Vice President Emma Day and Sen. Madison Albers voiced interest in learning more about what the criteria are for requests being approved and why there is resistance to changing the policy for Ellis County students.

Becker addressed the second student concern, which is about the intersection of Lyman Drive and Dwight Drive, located by Agnew Hall, Victor E. Village and Wooster Place. 

While Lyman Drive has stop signs at the intersection, Dwight Drive does not, and parked cars along the road can make it difficult for drivers to see pedestrians in the crosswalk. Likewise, the parked cars can also make it difficult for drivers at the stop signs on Lyman Drive to see the crossing traffic.

Becker asked about the possibility of making the intersection a four-way stop. He discussed the idea with constituents in a class.

“All the students were kind of frustrated and worried about hitting people,” he said.

Burrows said she will bring up the problem and the idea at the next Traffic Committee meeting in April.

Other SGA news

• Voting for the SGA spring elections opens March 27 and goes through March 28. Voting will take place on TigerLink.
• A resolution was introduced to make the Online Student Government Association its own entity rather than a branch of SGA.
• The Senate Affairs Committee is looking at the possibility of adding a seat for a part-time student.

The next SGA meeting will be at 7 p.m. on March 28 in the Black and Gold Room.