The Rocky Mountain Collegian

After four long hours of deliberation, the members of the Student Government Association made their semester efforts complete. During their last senate meeting of the semester, senators brought forward the results of the year's work, putting to vote major overhauls of the housing and meal plan systems at Saint Louis University and even revamping the SGA constitution.

Committee chairs Tim Mulhall and Taylor Bass both presented their respective approaches to housing and meal plan changes two weeks ago, at SGA's last senate meeting. Since, senators have gathered the opinions of their constituents and an online poll was distributed to assess the feelings of the student body on these issues.

Senators brought their constituents' feelings, as well as their own, to last night's meeting. Other students were moved to come to the meeting to represent their feelings personally to the senate.

And though not everyone left completely satisfied, they tried. Nearly a dozen amendments were proposed to both the housing and the meal plan bills. Though not all of them passed, the final bills reflect a compromise of last meeting's contentions.

The housing bill, most contested because of its original proposal to discontinue the policy of squatting, was passed with an amendment to allow both squatting and pull-ins under certain stipulations. While SLU's existing housing policy allows all students to keep in future years the rooms they currently occupy, the new bill only allows those who received the room through the housing process to keep their rooms--or squat--for future semesters. Any resident who has gone through fall/spring room signup, has been wait-listed, or participated in one of Residence Life's room change nights has rights to squat and pull friends with more than four semesters on campus. However, those who are pulled in may not squat.

In purpose, the amendment intends to prevent squatters and organizations who squat in certain apartments from maintaining monopoly on apartment living space. As Tim Mulhall's data showed, for example, though only 19 percent of SLU students are involved in fraternity/sorority life, 54 percent of Village residents are greek. He proposed that other groups also maintain these monopolies under the current system. With this resolution in place, however, an apartment may only stay occupied by the same persons for two years, after which it will be available to the general population.

Maintaining squatter's rights also appeases those whom, as Senator Will Drylen stated, "should be rewarded for going through the system". With more space available, and new rules in place to prevent sophomores from living in the Village, more juniors and seniors will be able to enjoy what they feel they deserve.

"As people progress until senior year, they don't want their housing situation in question like it was freshman year," he said.

An amendment was proposed by Senator Teresa Gabhart that all squatters who do not pull in enough people to live in their apartment should be under the jurisdiction of Residence Life to be relocated in their same area and reconsolidated with others in unfilled spaces. The proposed change would allow students who live in the Village junior year to continue for the rest of their academic careers, but would also prevent squatters who break up large groups of students looking for housing together. Though the amendment received a majority of the senators' votes - 26 out of 40 approved of the change -- it did not receive the two-thirds vote necessary to pass.

The Meal Plan Committee's bill also passed last night but not without questioning.

The bill, with intention to both spread out the distribution of meal plan overhead costs and create new food options on campus, entails a mandatory $200/semester meal plan for every undergraduate student. Every semester, students on the plan (everyone) will receive $150 flex points for on-campus food.

Fifty dollars of the $200 will go to overhead, while the other $150 will be used to attract other food options to subcontract with Chartwells, the company who maintains campus dining. In theory, the new food option should be available next fall.

While opposition to this bill obviously arose from its additional cost, proponents of the bill argued that the fee would allow for better food and better variety of food for students on campus, but also as a marketing tool. Also, it was important to many that the overhead costs be distributed equally because everyone uses the facilities.

In addition to editing their constitution, the SGA also allocated money to the SLU Roller Hockey Club for practice costs.

Clearly, many of the decisions SGA made last night affect the entire student body. As Vice President of Finances, Tom Gill, said about his and the senators's work: "we become informed on the issues, we evaluate them, and we try to make the best decision". Keep them informed with a letter to SGA@SLU.EDU.

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