The normal order of SGA meetings was disrupted as the senior director for facility services James Baker and the associate director of facility services Ernesto Gonzalez were in attendance to answer questions about current and upcoming construction projects, as well as the school’s master plan.

Baker and Gonzalez debriefed the meeting’s attendees on ongoing and upcoming campus projects, including the boiler outside of the George Storch Memorial Building, the new Trinity Parkway, City Vista repairs, the Halsell Center renovations, the proposed Welcome Center, plans for a new Grand Staircase and updated fire truck access.

In response to a question from President Oliver Chapin-Eiserloh about the boiler outside of Storch memorial, Baker explained that the boiler was providing heat to the academic building on upper campus while a pipe 23 feet underground is undergoing emergency repairs. According to Baker, the boiler should be packed up and moved out by the end of this month. There are plans to replace a different section of pipe that runs from Witt-Winn to the tennis courts by Witt-Winn during the 60 days between the end of the spring semester and the start of the fall semester.

Gonzalez gave an update on the repairs to City Vista after the damages caused by the winter storm in February of 2021. According to Gonzalez, everything has been brought up to code and they are fixing what should have already been installed. The contractor claims that repairs are on schedule and that City Vista should be ready by the fall semester.

First-year Senator Anirudan Sivaprakash brought up concerns about the leak in CSI. Gonzalez explained that there had been a vertical pipe break in the acid waste line that all the labs drain into. There will be no labs held on Friday, so the pipe will be repaired then and ready to go for next week.

Climate Check
Junior Senator Indigo Pearson kicked off the Climate Check with a reminder to his fellow senators about Free Food Friday.

Vice President Nasim Salehitezangi brought to attention that the SGA Finance Committee had only received one funding request. After some discussion amongst the senators, the root of the issue was determined to be a lack of awareness among the student body about funding. The finance committee will be working on communication strategies and offering an update next week.

Sophomore Senator Danny Nguyen provided an update about the first meeting of the new Inclusive Excellence Advisory Council (IEAC), which is co-chaired by Adviser Demitrius Brown.

Adviser Brown contributed to Senator Nguyen’s report to explain that the 60 members of the IEAC will be broken up into smaller subcommittees of 10-12 people and that students will be able to get updates on IEAC projects through the new DEI website. Brown also announced that the IEAC will be testing a new model for student involvement where students on the IEAC will be compensated for their time.

Senator Nguyen also gave an update on his meeting with Charles Robles and the anonymous student who filed complaints about Mabee Dining Hall. Many of the issues that had been brought up at last week’s SGA meeting were addressed in the meeting with Robles.

According to Robles, the inaccurate product tags in Mabee dining hall are not overseen by dining services, and the labels are done through Qualtrics software. Staff negligence in tracking temperatures will be rectified, specifically with chicken and pizza crust.

Robles addressed complaints about Freshii’s prices, explaining that price is determined by franchising regulations and that the Freshii on campus is actually a few dollars cheaper than their off-campus counterparts. Dining services will be reevaluating whether Freshii will remain on campus in a few years.

Robles also addressed the food policing issue, explaining that the strict policies were in response to athletes coming into the dining hall in the mornings and leaving with three to four smoothies and depleting the supply. Robles claims that the issue will go away once the dining hall returns to using hard plastic dinnerware.

In response to the complaints from students with dietary restrictions, Robles encouraged students to speak up and talk to a manager–especially students with Celiacs and gluten intolerance–and said that the dining hall is working on improving food options.

The POD shortages are the result of dining services only receiving half of the supplies they ordered. In response, dining services have been restocking through Costco and will be doubling their orders in hopes of receiving half of the orders.
According to President Chapin-Eiserloh, any complaints about specific dining personnel are being handled internally by dining services.

Adviser Brown followed up on the issue from the last meeting about items that are only available in the PODs on Upper Campus not being available over the weekend. Brown has asked SGA to compile a list of items that will be moved to the POD at Mabee, which is the only one open on the weekends. First-year Senator Harrison Tinker will be conducting an interest poll to determine what items will go on the list.

Finally, Senator Tinker requested follow-up on his request from last semester to move the TigerCard swap/rollover from 2 a.m. to 12 a.m. Due to time constraints, Senator Tinker’s request will be handled at the next meeting.

Officer Reports

Communications Chair Rebecca Wicker announced that they will be getting containers for the free period products in the bathroom and stickers to go on the containers.