The Student Senate’s bi-weekly meeting was held in WL 309 on Monday evening. It opened with introductions, and started with a few questions for Chandler Buchfeller, director of residence life and housing.

The senate had several questions to follow up on the meeting Buchfeller and Brian Mast, director of facilities, had with students living on the third floor of the Kulp Residence Hall earlier this month to speak about concerns of mice and a broken toilet.  

They inquired if there would be a potential for students to use Coffman for housing instead of Kulp, but Buchfeller said no. He did however report that to his knowledge the toilet has been fixed. 

Buchfeller was asked for an update on the Romero Apartments elevator and fire alarms, which were facing issues earlier this semester. He said that there has not been any more trash found in the elevator, and the fire alarms are mostly going off because of people cooking. 

Next on the agenda was talk about Student Senate elections for the upcoming school year. All positions will be up for election, which will again take place over three days during the week of April 14. 

Java hangouts were once again brought up as a more informal way for students to talk to senate leaders. Ana Alves Machado, at-large representative, suggested that Java hangouts happen once a week, where there is at least one member of the senate in Java at any point throughout the day, which seemed to have support from other senate members. They hope to start Java hangouts in the next few weeks. 

There were requests from clubs to access the spreadsheet with club budgets, to which Gilberto Pérez Jr., faculty advisor to the Student Senate, suggested that clubs should be keeping track of their own money, or ask Henrique Eichenberger, student activities coordinator, if they need an update. 

Pérez Jr. also responded to a recent inquiry about the Leadership Hub in the Union Building. He said that the space will be turned into the new commuter lounge, and where the lounge currently is will replace the Microsoft computer lab that used to be in the Good Library. There is a committee of commuter students who will work with facilities on the renovations that will happen over the summer. Until then, the space will remain closed. 

With the second floor of Wyse Hall opening up after the nursing department moved to Westlawn, the English and Spanish departments will move into that space. Pérez Jr. said that he hopes that Wyse 108b can be dedicated to clubs and organizations to replace the Leadership Hub. 

Student Senate will hold their next meeting on April 7, at 6 p.m. in the Mark Community Room across from the dining hall in Westlawn.