Tuesday, October 25th, 2016 | TechNews campus@technewsiit,com ‘ 2:!ili i : EEI 3

SGA discusses potential Athletics Senator, Stuart Building renovations, more at latest meeting

Soren Spicknall
COPY E DITOR

Though much of the day—to—day
business of Illinois Tech’s Student Government
Association (SGA) Senate involves working
on self—formulated projects and deciding the
status of prospective student organizations, its
reach is much broader than the groups most
visible facets. Senators are put in a special
position of trust by both their constituents
and their college, standing as representatives
of student opinion in conversations with
administrators. Additionally, senators set
the tone for the organization’s actions during
each academic year, and have the power to
bring about changes which drastically impact
how student advocacy and activity take place
on campus. During SGA’s most recent Senate
meeting on Wednesday, October 19, that
side of the organization became the focus
of conversation more than once, marking
the gathering as the most wide—ranging such
meeting of the semester so far.

At the beginning of this most recent
gathering, two newly—formulated student
orgs presented their pitches for acceptance as
officially—recognized bodies on campus. The
first, Chainless Challenge, was actually a group
that had existed prior, but had never needed
money from the Student Activities Fund in past
years. Because of this, they had never sought
official status as a student organization. The
group was formed exclusively to compete with
other universities at an annual event focused
on the design and construction of a chainless
bicycle, and the presenter from the organization
brought last year’s prototype to show to
the Senate. While some senators expressed
concerns about Chainless Challenge’s financial
planning and expectations (the presenter
was unable to provide many logistical details

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when questioned, but expressed eagerness to
learn the ropes of student org financing and
travel), the concept of the organization was
unique and had a history of success. The group
was approved by Senate after practically zero
private discussion, by a margin of 15 yes votes,
2 no votes, and 1 abstention.

The second organization on the
schedule, Handball, was a proposed intermural
sport for Illinois Tech. Though intermural
teams largely function under the funding
of Keating’s sports administration once
established, they are still considered student
organizations and must pass a Senate vote to
become active. The presenter for the group
interested in establishing a team explained
some of the sport’s origins, and pointed out
that a basketball court could be used in place
of a regulation handball court for play. After
limited private discussion, the sport was
passed by a margin of 16 yes votes and 2 no
votes among the present senators.

Moving on to updates from SGA’s
Executive Board, student body president
Leo Sukkar spoke about a recent meeting
that he and multiple senators had held with
staff members from the Office of Technology
Services (OTS), setting priorities for
improvements over the next year. The top
three focus projects established at that meeting
were improvement of campus Wi—Fi, changes
to the recently—established Hawki mobile app
(including added functionality for directly
making reports to Illinois Tech Public Safety),
and potential transformations of the often—
aligned MyIIT website. He also spoke of this
year’s Students Speak survey, which went
live on October 24 and will measure student
opinion of the performance of 12 different
departments on campus.

Student Life Committee Chair
Qianran He explained that her committee was

 

 

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prioritizing projects as well, with a focus this
year on revitalizing the Student Discount Card
program (which offers savings at many local
businesses, mostly restaurants), establishing an
SGA presence on MyIIT, improving options in
on—campus vending machines, and exploring
the possibility of reducing automobile speed
through campus on State Street. That list of
four 4 points came from a brainstormed list of
12 different action items, ranked in importance
by members of her committee.

A procedural vote was then held to
open up nominations for 5 vacant Senate seats:
2 in the College of Science, 2 in the College of
Architecture, and 1 in the School of Applied
Technology. SGA will be publicizing those
seats in the coming weeks, and nominees
will be elected by a simple majority vote of
the Senate once the nomination process has
ended.

The final portion of the meeting
was reserved for an open floor, in which SGA
members and others in the room could bring
forward topics to discuss. 2 official topics were
on the agenda, submitted by senators prior
to the meeting. Nathan Jones, a senator from
the College of Science, had spoken recently
with Dean R. Russel Betts about plans being
formulated for the renovation of Stuart
Building. Those plans were based on donations
being courted from corporate leadership of
Cleversafe, the Illinois Tech—founded data
storage company that was acquired by IBM last
year for more than a billion dollars, and were
specifically earmarked for the benefit of the
Department of Computer Science. Jones said
that upcoming renovations were supposed to
create an environment in Stuart Building that
would be “like a mini—Rettaliata” (referring to
the recently—renovated engineering center on
campus), and that Dean Betts wished to seek
input from students about what to focus on

when designing the renovated space. Senators
discussed whether work should extend to the
building’s basement or upper floor (something
that hasn’t happened in the Rettaliata
Engineering Center or Pritzker Science
Center), the possibility of creating outdoor
study spaces, and implementing a crosswalk
connecting Footlik to Stuart Building, which
has traditionally been the most isolated
academic structure at Illinois Tech.

After discussion about the future of
Stuart Building had concluded, senators heard
a proposal to add a new seat to their ranks,
representing student athletes. The debate over
the issue became the most extendedtopic of the
night, with no clear consensus formed. Many
pointed to the existence of Senate seats for the
Residence Hall Association, Greek Council,
and other special interests as justifying the
creation of an athletics senator, but there
was plenty of contention over whether the
challenges faced by athletes were unique
enough to merit specific representation.
Some current senators were concerned about
over—representing athletes who were already
represented through Senators from their
college and their housing situation, while
others argued that the presence of a large
number of student athletes in the sitting
Senate already ensured their concerns were
heard. The issue will be voted on at the next
Senate meeting on November 2, and senators
were encouraged by President Sukkar and Vice
President Sonia Kamdar to seek opinions from
their constituents to inform their votes.

SGA’s Senate meets once every two
weeks at 9:15 pm. in Stuart Building room
113, and its committees meet on alternating
weeks in the colored rooms of the MTCC.

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