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SGA held its last meeting of the 2005-2006 school year Wednesday where officers spent the majority of the meeting discussing and voting on 11 resolutions. Proposed resolutions recommendations included to decrease the fee for the Student Health Center, create parking spots for firefighters in Rho Parking Lot and install a bench at Drescher.
However, because it is the end of the year, SGA has limited funds and spent a significant amount of time in the meeting discussing how to appropriately distribute the funds. Some of the resolutions were altered, though all passed.
The most controversial resolution of the evening regarded putting a bench on the Drescher campus for students catching the shuttle.
Senior President Julie Chang presented the resolution to SGA.
“This is a big problem,” Chang said. “Many students take the shuttle three to four times a day. Because there is no bench, people sit on the curb and even on the street.”
However, the resolution faced resistance because a full shuttle stop costs $8,000. Members reached a compromise and decided to contribute $1,000 to the bench fund.
SGA also passed a resolution that revises the dead week policy. Junior Senator Zachary Love presented the resolution.
“Professors are still assigning papers and even tests during dead week,” Love said.
“The goal of this resolution is to encourage the proper administrators to take action by the dead week of fall 2006. This policy says to all professors that the only thing they can do during dead week is review for the final.”
Junior Fine Arts Director Melissa Leonelli said that she has already seen changes due to the resolution.
“My theory professor heard that SGA was talking about this and cancelled everything for dead week,” Leonelli said.
Another resolution passed gave the Student Health Center (SHC) support in asking the administration to lower the $70 SHC fee.
Senior Senator John Jorden expressed doubt with the resolution.
“The current fee offers some cost,” Jorden said, “so what happens when the SHC doesn’t get more revenue?”
Chang said that SHC hopes the decrease in the fee will encourage more students to use the SHC for increased revenue.
“It will attract more people to use Pepperdine services than to go off campus,” Chang said.
Senior Brooke Coates presented a resolution that would give Pepperdine firefighters six parking spaces in Rho Parking Lot.
“These guys are volunteers and work 24-hour shifts,” Coates said. “They have to haul up to 100 pounds from their cars and they can’t find any parking spaces. We should pass this in appreciation for what they do at Pepperdine.”
SGA unanimously passed the resolution.
Other resolutions included granting overseas groups money to buy sweatshirts.
“This is a necessity,” junior President Brendan Groves said. “We got them last year, and I think everyone should have them.”
The senior class also received funds in order to put on two final events for seniors, “The Final Inning” and “All Tied Up.”
“The Final Inning” is a dance party that will take place at Malibu Inn Thursday, April 20.
“There will be dancing, food and lots of prizes,” Chang said.
The final senior class event, “All Tied Up,” is a follow-up of freshman year’s My Tie. It will take place at Brock House backyard Thursday, April 27 at 8 p.m. President Andrew K. Benton and his band “Midlife Crisis” are scheduled to perform.
Freshman President Stefan Holt said the freshman class finished a good year in SGA.
“For our first year we’ve done a lot of great things,” Holt said. “We’ve definitely made our presence felt on the Pepperdine campus.”
SGA President Leon Dixson told SGA members that the year was a positive one for him.
“Last year I had no desire to be SGA president, but what really motivated me was knowing that I would have the power to get in here and do even more for the students,” Dixson said.
Dixson said that though his term ends at the end of the month, he will working at Pepperdine this summer on various projects.
Submitted 04-13-2006
MALIBU, CA
