With time running out on their terms in office, Associated Student Government executive board members are attempting to finish campaign promises and new projects that have arisen throughout the year.
ASG President Claire Lew said she is focusing on numerous projects, including improving cell phone reception on campus, upgrading student meal plans, creating an off-campus website and compiling a list of the top ten courses at NU. Despite time constraints, the SESP senior said they will be able to finish all the projects.
“We have created a culture of action in ASG,” she said.
In addition, many of the other members of the executive board members are trying to finish or at least make progress on several projects.
Student Life Vice President Katie Bradford said her projects include improving student meal plans, creating electronic package slips and compiling information guides for NU students.
Although ASG’s recommendations for changes to the meal plans have gone through the housing and food advisory committee, they still need to be approved by Bill Banis, the vice president for student affairs, as well as the board of trustees.
“I’m highly confident something will go through by the end of the quarter,” Bradford said.
A prototype for an electronic package slip system in mailrooms has already been created by Hiro Kawashima, ASG’s vice president. It may be launched in Kemper Hall, Slivka Residential College of Science and Engineering and Ayers College of Commerce and Industry by next week.
“I don’t know if we can get it campus-wide by the end of the quarter, but we’re going to try for it,” Bradford said.
Bradford’s information guides, which include information about NU’s health services and making money on campus, might not all be online by the end of the quarter, she said.
Like Bradford, Gabby Daniels, the academic vice president, has a few projects of her own. The Weinberg junior’s main goals are to make professors write the due date for their final papers in their class descriptions and to create a list of the top ten courses at NU.
According to Daniels, many classes have final papers due before the actual allotted date of their final exams. Therefore, students can unknowingly sign up for four final papers due in the same day. By making professors who have final papers due at an earlier date say so in their class descriptions, students can be more informed as they sign up for classes.
“Students can approach their final week with the most sanity,” the Weinberg junior said.
For this project, Daniels has had conversations with the registrar and Mary Finn, the associate dean for undergraduate academic affairs.
Daniels sent out a survey asking students to name their favorite courses; the survey has received responses from 300 students thus far. She will soon send the survey out to students again and said she hopes that the final list of the top courses will be out by the end of Spring Quarter.
While other executive board members are dealing with internal affairs, External Relations Vice President Ethan Merel’s projects deal with NU’s relationships with the City of Evanston. He hopes to finish uploading information to the off-campus student website, continue discussions with city officials and meet with Evanston aldermen to work on a proposal to amend the off-campus city ordinance. He also wants to potentially draft the amendment itself.
However, the Weinberg sophomore said these projects do not have a definitive end.
“A lot of these are continual progress,” he said. “I will make progress on each of them. It’s an ongoing process of adding more and more information.”
