SA Senate Addresses Student Safety, Board of Trustees Representation

By Joe F. Paolicelli

Blue light phones, student representation on the University Board of Trustees, and confirmations for numerous Student Association positions were some of the many issues the Student Association Senate addressed on Monday evening.

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution, sponsored by Senator Marshall Cohen, calling on the University Police Department to improve the blue light emergency phone beacons located around the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses.

The resolution asks GWPD, which operates the phones, to reactivate a currently disabled phone by the Law School, and to standardize the phones to ensure a consistent blue light is visible.

The Senate also unanimously passed a bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Ryan Counihan and Chris Stillwell, to create an internal research committee to examine the possibility of placing a student representative on the University Board of Trustees.

The committee, composed of five senators, will present a public, researched report to the Senate by February 1. The report will include a recommendation on whether such a position should be created.

Senator Stillwell was elected as the chair of the new committee with 19 votes, defeating Senator Paul Asercion, who garnered four votes. Senator Asercion was approved with unanimous consent as one of the four other members of the committee, along with Sens. Counihan, Shreya Chaturvedi, and Nora Albert.

While the Senate unanimously confirmed multiple research aides and a legislative director, consideration of the confirmation of multiple senator designates was postponed.

Although Senator Daniel Egel-Weiss proposed an amendment to the Senate bylaws that would have allowed the confirmations to take place, the amendment was tabled after questions came up about why the change to the bylaws was necessary and multiple senators expressed doubt that the amendment was the proper way to proceed.

Monday’s meeting was the first of three Senate sessions that will take place in consecutive weeks due to the timing of Thanksgiving break. Executive Vice President Kostas Skordalos asked the senators to be prepared for the November 18 meeting, when Senior Associate Provost for Enrollment Management Laurie Koehler will be answering questions about the recent revelations concerning the admissions department.