The Slippery Rock Student Government Association opened their formal meeting Monday night with guest speakers addressing the issue of campus safety. Assistant Vice President of Facilities, Planning and Environmental Safety Scott Albert was joined by Campus Police Chief Michael Simmons, and Emergency Management Administrator Paul Novak.
“Today we want to talk about safety and security systems and how they pertain to campus safety,” Novak said. “Fire detection and suppression are always an emphasis for us, but we’ve been upgrading all of our life safety and security across campus as part of campus improvements. We will continue this process as an aspect of our campus master plan.”
The main focus for improving security systems will be exploring access control measures such as electronic door locks and strikes, intrusion alarms and security cameras. Some of these improvements will be carried out this summer and will be fully functional for the 2018 fall semester.
Vice President of Internal Affairs Sophia Sarver was approved to serve as the Election Commissioner for the 2018 SGA Elections. Sarver, a four year member of SGA was seen by her fellow senators to be the most qualified for the position.
“I’ve known Sophie for four years and I think she is well experienced and qualified for this position,” Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs Scott Vogelgesang said. “She has been in SGA and has been around for many past elections. I believe that she can bring that unbiased opinion that this position needs.”
Vice President of Finance Riley Keffer and Speaker of the Senate Josh Jenkins will be joining Sarver as members of her Election Committee. Packets of information regarding the election process will be released on March 5th.
Nine new initiative requests were approved at Monday’s meeting. Newly-formed fraternity Theta Chi had their request of $5,000 to bring speaker Kate Harding to campus be met with opposition. After a motion to have the vote tabled because of a constitutional dispute, the speaker fees were approved with only two dissenting votes.
Much dispute occurred over the request made by the Student Association of American Academy of Physician Assistants. The $5,436.56 request was for eight of their members to attend a national conference. Finance VP Keffer was skeptical of whether or not the event was advertised well enough on campus, as the Physician’s Assistant school is located at SRU’s Harrisville campus.
“I’m skeptical how this was advertised to all students. For me, I plan on abstaining for this particular vote,” Keffer said.
Many senators followed suit, with four abstentions and six votes against approving the request. Ultimately, the 12 votes approving the request were enough to provide a majority. A motion was made to reconsider the previous vote, but only six senators voted to approve the motion as opposed to 16 votes for rejecting it.
Men’s Choir had their Capital Budget Request of $14, 500 for a new piano approved. The piano will be housed in Swope Music Hall and will be utilized by various departments for decades to come.
Other approved requests included the Rock Royalty Step Team’s request of $500 for a speaker and new mirror for practices, the Ultimate Frisbee Club’s request of $1,085 for equipment and tournament fees, Club Golf’s $3,264 request for tournament and travel fees and Club Volleyball’s request of $5,570.90 for travel and tournament fees.
The next SGA formal meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 20 at 8:30 in the Smith Student Center Theater.
