By Jonathan Smith, Managing Editor
After lengthy debate, the Students’ Association voted to postpone a final vote on a resolution that would support the creation of a committee to help students resolve personal problems with college life.
The Project Retro Arise resolution, sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth Alvarez, Administration Building, would establish a committee of nine students and five faculty members that would assist students having problems adjusting to college life. These problems might include a student not feeling accepted by his peers or like he fits in with any campus organization.
Alvarez said creating the committee would give these students one place to find out where they can get help for their problems.
“There’s no place for them to go to find out what they can do,” Alvarez said. “We need to figure out what those problems are, but since they don’t have any place to go, we’ll never know.”
However, several members questioned the need for creating a whole committee. Some suggested that resident assistants and spiritual life advisers on each residence hall should already fill this need, and some said SA should simply work harder at reaching out to those students instead of creating a committee; Alvarez disagreed.
“All of you are talking about how we need to do our job better,” she said. “This is our job.”
The resolution will continue to be discussed at the next meeting.
Susanne Drehsel, International Students Association liaison, announced the creation of the Abilene Affairs Committee. This committee will be responsible for watching for events in the community that could affect students.
Drehsel used SA’s lack of promotion of the students’ cause to the Abilene City Council-which recently voted against raising the limit of non-related people living in one house, as one example of how the committee could help.
“This is a way we can do direct advocacy for our students,” Drehsel said.
Alvarez also introduced a resolution that would require students to be informed within 36 hours of a hold being placed on their accounts. Alvarez said students are only sometimes notified of holds, creating problems during registration because students with holds are not allowed to sign up for classes.
Congress approved supporting the resolution, 37-4 with no abstentions.
SA also unanimously approved the appointment of Jamie Maudlin as the fifth junior class senator after executive president Jonathan Wilkerson announced that she had expressed interest in filling the position.
Congress also granted Rep. Erin Baldwin, Administration Building, a leave of absence. Baldwin had announced her resignation earlier in the meeting because of personal reasons but accepted the leave of absence instead, which would allow her to rejoin Congress in the spring.
The Students’ Association Congress meets every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Room 114 of the Biblical Studies Building. All undergraduates are members of SA and are invited to attend.
