Rockhurst Sentinel

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Student Senate

The past several weeks have been very busy and productive for the Rockhurst University Student Senate. We recently welcomed an additional new five senators. Congratulations to Katelyn Pirnie, Gus Medina, Doyle Witt, Dani Myers, and Jarrett Leiker who were appointed to the Senate! They are sure to be a tremendous addition to the organization.

This semester, the Senate ratified an updated constitution which was approved by the university. Among the changes in the constitution is timing of elections. Students will now have the opportunity to vote for their senators at the end of the fall semester, in November instead of in May. This change was made to ensure a smooth transition between executive boards and to adopt a procedure that has proven successful at other universities and in the Greek system.

After listening to many student complaints, the Student Senate has been working to improve campus security. Members of the Senate recently met with Bill Evans, Director of Security, to discuss the slow response time that often occurs when calling campus security. The security department is currently understaffed and is in the process of hiring new officers and dispatchers. In addition to a lack of officers and dispatchers, there is only one person on duty at a time to monitor over one hundred campus security cameras. Mr. Evans said that he expects his officers to respond to a call within three minutes and will try to ensure that this occurs in the future.

With the arrival of fall registration, the Senate met with Dean Shirley Scritchfield, Ph.D. and Director of Advising Rob Hamilton to discuss improvements to academic advising in the College of Arts and Sciences. The main topic of concern was the lack of student satisfaction with the knowledge and helpfulness their academic advisors. The situation will be monitored during the registration process and we will continue to offer suggestions to improve the quality of academic advising.

The Senate food committee has been working with Sodexho food service to reduce the waste produced by Rockhurst dining venues. The cafeteria recently ordered and received new "real" plates. These new plates will greatly cut down on the amount of trash produced and will reduce the cafeteria's dependency on Styrofoam, which is very harmful to the environment. Be sure to ask for a real plate whenever eating in the cafeteria!

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