Associated Student Government discussed lending their support Wednesday to creating a bike lane running down Sheridan Road and facilitating the addition of an ad-hoc analytics committee that would send out surveys during the year to gauge student opinion.

The legislation for the bike lane addition cited various statistics that demonstrated student support and referenced the $1.5 million in federal funds that will go toward the creation of the additional lane. Members who proposed the legislation said the bike lane would serve the community well due to the percentage of students who ride bikes on campus and the number of students who demonstrated support for the initiative.

“What’s been missing from this conversation has been student support,” said Wesley Lien, former ASG sustainability vice president. “So based on the all-campus ASG survey last winter, it was shown that a plurality of students on campus supported developing a bike lane on Sheridan Road.”

Senate also discussed the creation of an ad-hoc analytics committee, which would be responsible for organizing student feedback and developing a plan to send out the campus-wide student survey in an efficient manner. This past year, former ASG vice president of academics Sofia Sami spearheaded the initiative to send out the large-scale survey and members of Senate proposed the committee in an effort to reallocate this responsibility.

In order to begin forming the committee as soon as possible, the legislation was fast-tracked, moved to old business and passed at the meeting.

ASG members were also presented with a proposal to make the University more eco-friendly through requiring that all ASG events go through the Sustainability Committee’s Green Events Consulting team.

Medill sophomore Christina Cilento, ASG sustainability vice president, said this initiative would not only make NU a leader in green initiatives but would further encourage students in other groups to utilize the service and expand this effort.

“I think the value of having ASG go through us really sets a precedent for the rest of the University so if other groups see that ASG has gone through Green Events Consulting, that could provide them with an incentive,” Cilento said. “It’d just really be committing ASG to sustainability.”

An NU Listens representative also spoke to Senate about the services the organization offers and the goals the group is hoping to accomplish. Billy Choo, from NU Listens, began his talk by outlining how the the service started and shared the mission statement of the organization, which is currently in a pilot version.

(NU Listens launches peer listening service for mental health support)

Senate members also heard from Victoria Getis, manager of faculty support services at NUIT, about the attributes of the Canvas learning management system, to which the University will be officially transitioning. Getis spoke about the overwhelming support that students and faculty demonstrated for the new system and documented the timeline for the transition plan, noting in the next year, it is likely students will have classes run in both Canvas and Blackboard up until the transition is completed.

Getis said she is hoping to increase student communication through the Canvas transition and asked Senate members the best ways to go about increasing student involvement and spreading the word about the new system.

Senate also debated allocating money from the Project Pool to several different student groups, ultimately amending multiple proposals to award the groups less money than originally requested. Mayfest representatives were awarded funds for specific pieces of art for Dillo Day. Senate members decided to amend the request and rewarded the group $700 instead of the $1200 from their original request.

Senate also gave money from the Project Pool to South Asian Student Alliance for its spring concert and NU Asian to fund printing of its magazine.

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Twitter: @beccasavransky