Fire pit project almost goes up in flames

The ongoing plans to install a fire pit behind the Hub were almost burned to ashes when a senator suggested ending Student Senates involvement in the project at the weekly Monday meeting.  

Sullivan Jones, senator of liberal arts, suggested that the project should be turned over to the administration because it was too expensive for the use of student funds. He said that, because the fire pit would be property of the school as soon as it is finished, that is should be a project funded by the school rather than students. 

 “This is a lot of money,” Jones said. “$140,000, it’s like they said, you could buy a house in Chadron for that price, and we’re going to spend that on a fire pit.” 

Another concern Jones voiced was the lack of answers to questions regarding details like fuel. 

“So, a lot of these questions that everyone is asking- and they’re good questions- have been asked before,” Jones said. “They’re the same questions, just different people. We’ve been working on this for years now and the problem is that no one’s taken it upon themselves to do anything about it. We need to focus our attention and our money on something that is truly going to benefit the students.” 

Another big question that hasn’t been answered is who would be in charge of operating the fire pit. The responsibility is likely to lie with RAs, as they are the ones in closest proximity to the project. Some senators believed that this would be too much of a burden, but Kelsey Crock, senator of EHPCPSW who is also the president of RLA, assured everyone that RAs are on board with the project.  

“RA wise, I know 99%, I’m not going to say 100 because as I told you there’s no pleasing everyone, most of them are fine with adding that little bit of responsibility to it if it means improving student’s life on campus because that’s our whole job to keep people on campus,” Crock said.  

Bryan Zutavern, senator of BMS, suggested a student town hall to have the questions answered and then let students vote on whether the project should continue rather the senate make the decision.  

In an eight to four vote, the senators voted against halting the fire pit plans.