USG discusses 24-hour study spaces, upcoming mobile calendar app

The Undergraduate Student Government discussed their semester goals as a whole and for specific committees at their weekly meeting on Sunday.

USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said that the USG recently sent an email to the student body that included a list of the senate's priorities for the spring 2015 semester.The list was compiled based on the recent What Matters campaign, which gave students the opportunity to rank projects they would like to see the USG work on in the future.

“For the first time ever, USG can advertise our whole list of priorities,” Cheng said.

One priority the senate is working on is increasing the availability of 24-hour study spaces on campus, Cheng said. Since having libraries open additional hours would require funding for late-night staff, USG plans to raise awareness of study spaces that are already available, especially those that are located in dorms.

Another ongoing project predicted to be completed in fall 2015 is the creation of a Mobile Meal Exchange App in conjunction with Campus Dining and the Office of Information Technology. The application would allow students to more easily trade eating club and dining hall meals, Cheng said.

She said that USG has also been working with University Services to plan focus groups with students in order tomake transportationmore efficient both on- and off-campus. She added that no plans have been made yet.

The senate will also hold a mid-semester retreat in March, in which members will have a chance to reflect on the progress of current projects and brainstorm new projects.

"This is always an ongoing process,” USG vice president Aleksandra Czulak ’17 said.

USG also plans to coordinate a panel of administrators with whom students can discuss dormitory bathroom codes, Cheng said. After the creation of a mobile application called GirlCode, which published all of the codes to the women's bathrooms on campus, and the subsequent change of codes across campus, the question of whether all dormitory bathrooms should have codes has been a topic of debate among students.

U-councilor Jacob Cannon ’17 presented an update on the integrated mobile calendar app. Several USG members have been working with OIT on an application called Timeline, which will be a platform for different departments and clubs on campus to post deadlines or schedules for public events. In addition to Timeline providing general information, students will be able to personalize the app and use it to easily organize their personal deadlines.

The app will likely be available for beta testing this spring and be released for student use in the fall, Cannon said.

“What we really need you guys for is to make sure that we’re not experiencing serious groupthink,” he said. “It’s not worth our time or OIT’s time to move forward with this if it’s not going to be a big thing.”

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Projects in the past have experienced obsolescence, Class of 2016 senator Deana Davoudiasl said.

“So many technological things get built, and then there’s no use. They go into the graveyard,” she said. “There needs to be a critical mass in order for it to be used.”

The senate also approved the Projects Board’s funding request for the second annual fashion show to celebrate African culture and passed an amendment to the constitution of the honor system to fill a vacancy in the clerk position.