USG members discussed the renovation of Frist Campus Center, the cleaning policy for dormitory suites and the freshman peer advising system during a meeting last night.
Class of 2010 Senator and USG vice president-elect Mike Wang reported on a recent meeting with Dining Services Director Stu Orefice ,which focused on major renovations being planned for the 100-level of Frist Campus Center.
The renovations, he said, will be conducted in three stages. First, the C-Store will move to the location previously occupied by the Healthy Eating Lab. The move, to be completed by the third week of January, will make room for Witherspoon Sweets, a new snack shop that will be placed in the old C-Store location.
The store, slated to open after spring break, will offer shakes, ice cream and Small World Coffee. Over the summer, in the second phase of renovations, Cafe Vivian will be transformed into "a sustainable cafe ... like a Subway but organic," Wang said.
The cafe's culinary offerings will be organic and come from local farms, Wang said, adding that Dining Services also plans to extend the cafe's hours. But, he said, the updated cafe is still envisioned as serving as a comfortable study area.
Peer Advising
Academics chair Sarah Breslow '08 expressed concerns that the peer advising system currently in place for incoming freshmen does not include adequate follow-up from advisers. She noted that, after freshman week, "advising really dropped off."
Recently, Breslow said, she and Class of 2010 Senator Ben Lund met with residential college directors of studies to discuss ways to improve the current advising system. During the meetings, she added, everyone agreed that a desirable goal would be "for a peer adviser to check in with their freshmen at least once [after orientation week]."
Lund added that he believes more information needs to be distributed to freshmen about advising. One suggestion, he said, would be to create "a guide to using the academic advising system ... so that freshmen don't feel lost."
The publication would be included with other information sent to incoming students over the summer, Lund said.
Suite Cleaning Policies
U-Councilor Rohan Joshi '08 described a plan to increase the availability of cleaning supplies to students in suites that are responsible for cleaning their own bathrooms.
Currently, he said, only suites with more than five or six residents receive cleaning supplies at the beginning of the year and then later upon request. But that situation "wasn't fair for a lot of freshmen," he said, since they often live in suites that have private bathrooms but house fewer than five people.
Joshi said he was able to convince Building Services to start a pilot program at Forbes — where many suites with four or fewer residents have private bathrooms — in which janitors will furnish those rooms' residents with cleaning kits, similar to those already provided to larger suites' occupants.
Joshi said he hopes the program will make it easier for students to clean their own bathrooms while reducing the workload of janitors who clean every private bathroom at the end of the year.
If the program is successful, he added, the University will "consider expanding the whole program to the entire school."
Alcohol Policy
USG officers also continued their discussion of the revised alcohol policy. USG vice president and president-elect Josh Weinstein '09 reiterated his belief that "the policy as a whole isn't inherently bad."
Noting that discussions with administrators are ongoing, he proposed using Alcohol Initiative funds to sponsor "safe or non-dangerous drinking" for students who are at least 21 years old.
Such alcohol-based events open exclusively to students who can legally drink, Weinstein said, would replace events in which students of all ages drink together and thus "decrease the number of 21-year-olds around supplying alcohol to the underage[d]."
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