Senate Discusses leadership conference, Smoking, campus facilities

Student government members that attended the Nebraska State College System Leadership Conference at Peru State on Oct. 18 and 19, spoke Monday about the experience.

Dani Buckley, vice-chair of programing, said that Peru’s CAB is more student centric, than club based. Clubs at Peru that receive funds from CAB are not required to attend regular meetings, and Buckley said that the executive board is discussing possible changes to CAB’s policy for the spring semester.

Senate President Jacob Rissler said that Peru’s senate allows freshmen senators to vote, but that CSC would not be adopting that practice.

“I tried to secure voting rights for freshmen senators when I was on the constitution consolidation committee last year, but I decided not to fight that battle,” Rissler said.

Also discussed at the Peru Conference were campus-smoking restrictions.

State law prohibits smoking within 10 feet of the entrance to a public building.

While most of the senators who spoke during open discussion were in favor of adopting stricter regulations, Nate Jones, senate vice-president, said that it would be difficult for the senate to move forward because it is unclear whose jurisdiction it would be to enforce the regulations.

“I’m not a smoker, but if you are going to make a change, make it fair,” Garret Lower, senator of BEAMS, said.

Rissler said that he spoke with Dale Grant, vice president of administration and finance, and discussed the possibility of constructing a gazebo or covered area to serve as a designated smoking area.

Rissler and Jones spoke about Peru’s student government’s relations with their campus newspaper; The Peru State Times.

Rissler and Jones said that The Peru State Times is supportive of their student government. On Wednesday, The Eagle contacted Kristi Nies, adviser for The Peru State Times.  She  said that the statements made by Rissler and Jones were incorrect.

“We publish four times a semester, and student senators occasionally submit articles,” Nies said, but add that this practice was as a public service, rather than a promotion.

“We do not have a set policy on covering senate meetings or events,” Nies said.

Rissler spoke about both paper’s content.

“We’ve got our campus, that publishes negative articles, and there’s no real oversight,” Rissler said.

“Their paper, it doesn’t matter opinion or news, it has to be approved by the administration before the can publish it.”

Nies said this was also incorrect, and that administrative approval is not required before The Peru State Times publishes.

Jones said that when The Peru State Times publishes opinions, they are required to have contrasting opinion represented.

“The Peru State Times has no policy requiring both sides of an issue be presented,” Nies said.

Nies said that Jones was probably referring to a feature column where two Times staff writers discuss opposite sides of an issue.

When Rissler and Jones were contacted Wednesday, they said they had also spoke to Nies and said that they both had misunderstood initial information they were given. Rissler apologized for relaying the inaccuracies, and said he will be issuing a formal statement at next week’s meeting.

Josh Keating, senator of liberal arts, delivered a report about the campus Facilities, Safety and ADA Compliance Committee meeting he attended.

Keating discussed the progress being made on campus construction projects, possible FEMA aid for Winter Storm Atlas cleanup, and the continued issues with broken elevators on campus.

Marcella Luton, Kent Hall senator, said that the Kent elevator being broken creates a hassle for injured athletes living on the third floor.

Aaron Prestwich, senior director of student affairs, said that the elevator issues were caused by power outages. High Rise elevator renovations will be completed soon, while others are part of an ongoing project, Prestwich said.

Rissler said that he spoke with state legislative representative Al Davis, and discussed a possible Atlas cleanup for Crawford.  Susan Shaeffer, senate adviser, said that the senate should ask the community for input.

Buckley delivered the CAB report and said that 112 students participated in free bowling night last Saturday at Saya Lanes, and 285 students attended free movie night. CAB will host another free bowling night in November.