Associated Student Government senators can expect a short meeting tonight, as business returns to usual after the Senate completed fall supplemental funding last Wednesday.
Speaker of the Senate Jonathan Webber, a SESP junior, said he likes to keep the meetings short after funding because the process is lengthy.
Senators will vote on two bills proposed Oct. 25 in response to recent NU security recommendations. The first proposal by the student services committee condemns the administration for not consulting students before proposing the changes. It calls for the administration to postpone placing alarms on all side doors in residence halls until student opinion is gauged. The second bill would create a HereAndNow poll asking students for their reactions to proposed changes.
ASG President Jay Schumacher will formally appoint the ASG student opinion committee. Schumacher said committee members will scientifically study student needs.
“We were looking for people with general enthusiasm, people who cared about looking how to better measure student opinion,” Schumacher said, adding that the committee includes Mathematical Methods in the Social Science majors with experience in polling and real-world practice.
The committee is chaired by Matt Bogusz, a Weinberg sophomore, and has six members total.
“We have a great breadth and depth of students (on the committee) to make sure that student needs are being met,” Schumacher said.
If the Senate passes the poll on residential hall security measures, the new committee will have no involvement. Schumacher said he hopes the committee will meet for the first time this week to “get the ball rolling,” but because the proposed poll is so simple, they will not be called on.
“Hopefully in the future this committee will be experts in polling and surveying so that when we take things before the administration, it will be more credible,” Schumacher said.
Senators will also hear from Katie Blank of the Northwestern Alumni Association about how NAA serves students and student groups.
– Dan Fletcher
