SGA Passes Three Pieces of Legislation in Productive Meeting

By Catherine O’Grady

Catholic’s Student Government Association hosted a senate meeting in which three pieces of legislation were up for discussion and voting. A last minute vote to elect Julia Pridel and Brendan Cevetello to the Treasury Board was also added to the agenda and two members were unanimously approved by the senate.

The next order of business was a motion to remove the Pledge of Allegiance from the agenda which was also approved unanimously.

The first piece of legislation discussed was Resolution 009, mandating midterm grades sponsored by Melessia Zentz. This resolution would ask administration to require professors to post all “cumulative graded assignments prior to the [midterm] report.”

“This is an issue because students should be able to know where they stand in a class before it’s too late,” said Zentz. “Come the end of the semester they are out of time and lack of opportunities to bring up their grades.”

After a few concerns were made about the issue by other senators, the motion was passed unanimously. The next resolution on the agenda encouraged policy changes within the department of public safety. This resolution, sponsored by Senator Cavan Hagerty, focused on three improvements to be made on campus through DPS .

The first part of this agenda focused on the reevaluation of the placement of blue lights on campus and addition of more to ensure at least two can be seen from any area on campus. Hagerty also informed the senate of blue light call boxes capability to be used as a wayfinding tool for visually impaired students on campus. The blue lights have the ability to emit a low frequency sound that can be heard a few feet from the source and can be used by the visually impaired to navigate campus and call DPS when they are in need of assistance.

“DSS [Disability Support Services] is working with the most [visually impaired students] this year than they have in the history of their office so we want to make sure that all members of our campus community remain safe,” said Hagerty.

The second aspect of this resolution asks for an update of the crime reporting procedure to include reports of all crimes committed on campus to the university community in an orderly manner as well as the proposal to provide real time updates via text message to the campus community as a way to inform the community of crimes and law enforcement responses currently happening on campus.

The final aspect is the addition of a Special Police Officer stationed at Harewood Road NE at night as a deterrent for criminals and to ensure students get home safely.

“This additional Special Police Officer would act similar to the one [stationed] under the Taylor Street Bridge,” said Hagerty.

After Hagerty had finished his pitch, senators had the opportunity to ask questions about the resolution. Most concerns revolved around the ambiguity of the instant text messaging updates.Even with the concerns, resolution 010 was passed by the senate unanimously.

The final piece of legislation presented before the senate was Resolution 011 was that called for a tobacco-free campus. Senator Leigh Calotta, senator for the School of Nursing, sponsored this resolution. The current legislation states that smoking is not allowed within a 25 feet distance from any building. Calotta noted that administration is unable to make a change until the students do something.

“I appreciate the strikes our university has taken to limit smoking on campus, but I believe we can do much better,” said Calotta. Resolution 011 will ban the use of tobacco products on campus, including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars, hookah-smoked products, and oral tobacco in order to promote a healthier campus environment.

“Bad regulation is not remedied by more regulation,” said Senator Nicholas Spinelli from the Busch School of Business, one of the most vocal opponents of the resolution who called for the enforcement of the policy already in place.  

However vocal some senators were against a tobacco-free campus, the resolution was passed in a 14 to 11 vote and will be sent to committee.