Student Services Committee members will lobby for a bill that would allow students to track the location of each campus shuttle on its route through a link on Associated Student Government’s HereAndNow Web site at Wednesday night’s ASG Senate meeting.
Bills that will look into a pilot undergraduate and graduate mentorship program, an online poll concerning cell phone reception on campus and changes to Northwestern’s non-discrimination policy also will be considered as new business.
The Academic Committee will lobby for a bill calling for ASG and NU administrators to recognize the need for two pre-med advisers and for more resources for students who consider themselves on a pre-med or pre-health track.
Locating where shuttles are online will be made possible because of new Global Positioning Systems in each shuttle. The GPS was installed in the shuttles because of student complaints about shuttles being too late or too early to their stops.
“Now students can pinpoint exactly where shuttles are,” said Jessica Joslin, Education junior and author of the GPS shuttle service bill. “The shuttles are also an important safety service, and hopefully this way, people will use them more.”
Another Student Services bill would call for a poll to be posted on the HereAndNow Web site to see how cell phone reception could be improved on campus.
“We want to create a project where in which students tell us what is the most widely used (cell phone) service,” said Kerianne Tobitsch, an Education sophomore and co-author of the cell phone bill.
The poll would also survey where students think cell phone reception needs to be improved. Tobitsch hopes eventually to work with administrators to purchase towers for the bad service areas from the most widely used cell phone service.
The Student Service committee’s Diversity Subcommittee will lobby for a bill that would call for ASG to push the administration to add the term “gender identity and expression” to NU’s non-discrimination policy.
If the policy were revised, it would extend protection from discrimination to intersexed individuals, or people born with atypical combinations of male and female genitalia or reproductive organs), transsexuals, transgendered persons, and heterosexual individuals who do not adhere to gender norms.
“It could potentially affect only a small number of people, but Northwestern shouldn’t stand for discrimination in any form,” said Whitney Gretz, a Weinberg sophomore and co-author of the bill. “We want to make sure people in our community feel welcome here.”
The Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee also will make recommendations for this year based on research members conducted outside of ASG, according to Speaker of the Senate Matt Hall, an Communication senior
Due to Project Pumpkin, a Halloween event sponsored by Northwestern Community Development Corps, the Senate meeting will be held at 8 p.m. in the Northwestern rooms at Norris University Center. The meeting is open to the public.
