ASG: We failed to speak for students in new city bar law
Associated Student Government leaders were candid about their inadequacies at the second weekly Senate meeting in a row on Wednesday.
President Patrick Keenan-Devlin addressed how ASG could have better represented students’ objections to city liquor ordinances passed Monday by the Evanston City Council. Last week, the Music senior spoke openly about financial mismanagement in previous years relating to the ASG-funded Student Legal Services.
Keenan-Devlin said he had been assured by aldermen and other city officials that the ordinance would not pass, so he did not organize representatives from ASG and student groups to speak against it.
“I sat in the back of the room (at the City Council meeting on Monday) and was positive this was going to fail because my friends had promised me it would fail,” he said.
He discussed the same issue at a forum with student groups earlier in the day.
At the Senate meeting, ASG passed a bill to poll students from the HereAndNow Web site about their ATM use. If students indicate interest, ATMs might be moved from quieter locations, such as from the Pancoe Life Sciences Pavilion and Kellogg School of Management, to busier places such as Lisa’s Cafe and Blomquist Recreation Center. The poll will be posted within a week and will remain for two weeks.
A clear response to the poll would tell U.S. Bank that moving the ATMs would be effective, said Weinberg sophomore Kathy Lin, one of the bill’s authors and a member of the student services committee..
William Banis, vice president for Student Affairs, also spoke at Wednesday’s meeting. Banis described ASG’s accomplishments in recent years, from improving exercise equipment at Blomquist to a voter registration drive last fall.
After he spoke, senators asked him what he thought ASG could do better.
“My wish would be to reduce the divisiveness that goes on among student organizations,” Banis said.
To promote cooperation between clubs, ASG will host a co-sponsorship forum for student group leaders to discuss potential collaborations. It will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday in Norris University Center’s Ohio State room.
– Diana Samuels
