Fire Pit project fizzles out

The fire pit project went up in smoke Monday when Student Senate voted 15-1 to discontinue plans during its weekly meeting. 

The decision came after the fire pit committee recommended the project be stopped. A survey sent out by the committee Wednesday showed 119 students out of 207 voted against the fire pit project.   

“When I talked to my constituents, especially after and during the town hall, nine out of 10 of them either said ‘no’ or that they didn’t really see the investment of having it,” Bryan Zutavern, senator of BMS, said. “Some of them said that they didn’t really care and that they didn’t have an opinion. When pressed, they would say that they didn’t think the fire pit was the way to go.”

A previous survey sent to students Oct. 6 regarding the fire pit showed that out of the 610 total votes, 348 voted in favor of the fire pit, 138 voted against the fire pit, and 57 did not have enough information.  

“I think it’s good that we put all this effort into discovering what the constituents want as far as the fire pit,” Sullivan Jones, liberal arts senator, said. “Now we known they don’t want it and so we should take this time to come up with something they do want.” 

Both surveys provided students with the ability to submit comments to Student Senate, and responses to both surveys showed that students wanted to spend the allocated $158,000 on something else.   

“I do love the idea of having a gathering space,” Natalie Boyd, senator at large, said. “From an events perspective it’s a great spot to hold events. But at the end of the day, I’ve talked to my constituents at length and most of them are like with our kind of weather, you’re only going to get two months a year use out of it and they’re like I don’t see spending all that money when we could have other initiatives like expanding the food pantry or creating a winter initiative for students who don’t have coats.” 

Senators are now working to find a new project to turn their attention to.  

In other news: 

> Student Senate allocated $250 to Sharing and Caring. 

> Student Senate allocated $1,050 for I Hate Winter Week. 

> Isna Patel, senator at large, was sworn in as the new vice chair of financing.