Associated Student Government senators are expected to introduce three bills that aim to foster an increased sense of community within the Northwestern student body at tonight’s Senate meeting. The proposals follow research done Fall Quarter on methods used for building community at institutions similar to NU.

One of the bills to be introduced will call for the university to cancel all classes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The bill, written by various senators from the Northwestern Community Development Committee, cites NU and the University of Chicago as the only two schools out of the 18 institutions participating in the Consortium on Financing Higher Education to hold classes on the holiday.

Other schools within the COFHE, such as Harvard University, Yale University, Duke University and Stanford University, “all rearrange their academic calendars to honor this special day, ” the bill asserts.

Weinberg senior Tracy Carson, coordinator of For Members Only, a group sponsoring the bill, said a full-day celebration of MLK Day would increase the sense of community by “bringing so many different kinds of people together” without the stress of having to go to class.

“If the post office, banks and public high schools are closed because (MLK Day) has been deemed a federal holiday, the university should commemorate it in the same fashion,” Carson said. “It’s not a half-holiday.”

Another bill from the committee proposes the creation of a student TV station, asserting that it would build community at NU by fostering communication between students and the university.

The bill points out that none of the institutions with student TV stations in the COFHE have a theater program as large as NU’s. The bill states that the creation of a station would give theater students opportunities to gain experience in their fields.

Additionally, the bill lists other institutions with journalism programs comparable to NU’s that have student-run TV stations, such as the University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia University and Syracuse University. The bill also points out that a TV station could allow for news shows, morning shows and evening newscasts.

The final bill on tonight’s agenda seeks to launch a formal committee for researching ways to improve community on campus.

The bill calls for the creation of the Northwestern Community Development Initiative, a group of both senators and non-senators, to increase student involvement outside of student government. The proposal emulates similar projects at Georgetown and Stanford universities.

ASG also will vote on a bill introduced last week to ask for animal dissection alternatives for biology students who oppose the practice to be listed on course syllabi and the biology department Web site.

ASG agenda

Matters to be voted on:

* Bill calling for better publicizing of dissection alternatives

* Bill proposing a full-day celebration of MLK day

* Bill proposing a a student television station

* Bill proposing creation of a the Northwestern Community Development Initiative to foster campus community