A day after student leaders created a new group to improve safety in the wake of two recent attacks on students, Associated Student Government senators on Wednesday encouraged students and administrators to follow through with those plans.
“In all honesty, this (resolution) should have been here last week,” said Jason Warren, chairman of the Rules Committee and a Speech sophomore. “You must tell the administration that student safety matters.”
The passage of the resolution follows the formation of the Northwestern Safety Alliance by ASG members and student group leaders.
“Senators have a mandate now to go out and act,” said ASG President Rachel Lopez, a Weinberg junior, who organized the alliance.
In regular business, senators passed a bill to investigate student views on the role of Advanced Placement and transfer credits in the course registration process.
Before voting, senators engaged in lively debate about the purpose of the proposed survey. Several speakers said they were concerned the bill would give students the impression that ASG wanted to eliminate the advantage of AP credits.
“Isn’t this just a fact-finding mission?” said Bryan Tolles, senator for Elder Hall, defending the bill.
Sol Betancourt, a Weinberg junior, said he understood Tolles’ frustration and proposed a successful amendment that broadened the scope of the survey to include all non-NU credits.
“This is going to take a long time so we should start now,” Betancourt said.
Before senators reached the seven bills on their agenda, Mike Fong, Kemper Hall senator, used creative parliamentary tactics to reintroduce a constitutional amendment that failed to gain approval at last week’s meeting by just one vote. The amendment proposed to make referenda binding for two years instead of four.
Fong, a Weinberg sophomore, immediately offered an amendment to the bill to make the change from two years to three. But senators voted to table that part of the motion until next week’s meeting, so they could encourage more senators to attend. The amendment requires a two-thirds majority of all senators to pass.
Senators approved the second part of the amendment, which allows ASG to hold more than one referendum each year under special circumstances.
Senators passed six other bills without debate, voting to recommend tracking shuttles using global positioning satellite system technology, implementing a searchable online landlord guide, supporting a Web site for undergraduate research opportunities, creating new study lounges in the library, holding a campuswide Thanksgiving dinner and encouraging participation in CTECs.
At the end of the meeting Amanda Neitzel, a senator for dorms at 710 Emerson and 1856 Orrington, introduced a bill to improve the safety of pedestrians on campus.
Neitzel said a car struck her while she crossed Sheridan Road last week near the intersection of Sheridan and Foster. Her bill calls for NU administrators and University Police to implement safety measures including, if possible, stop signs, rumble strips and pedestrian crossing signs.
Tolles asked Neitzel if she had talked to Evanston officials, especially the First Ward alderman, who addressed Senate last week.
“Have you spoken to our new best friend Art Newman about this proposal?” he said.
