After winning the Student Union election for the 2011-12 academic year, the slate Build BU has begun working toward achieving campaign promises.
“Though many students believe that the Union goes on hiatus over the summer while a majority of the student body isn’t on campus, a lot actually goes on,” said College of Arts and Sciences freshman Sophie Miller, the new Union secretary.
Miller said the Union advisory committee will work over the summer to make sure progress is being made. The advisory committee is a group of BU students who remain in Boston for the summer and are able to meet with one another, the administration and incoming freshmen.
“It’s essentially a combination of the three Union Committees: advocacy, outreach and events,” Miller said. “The student voice needs to be heard by the administration over the summer, even when the Union senate is not in session, and SUAC allows for that to happen.”
Union’s biggest goal is a 24-hour study space for students that includes printing services. As of this semester, Union has increased the amount of days that Mugar Memorial Library will be open for 24-hours during final exams by an extra four days, but there is still no 24-hour study space open all year.
“We think this is a complete injustice,” said current Union President Arthur Emma, a CAS senior. “For a school whose goal is to produce a high-quality educational experience, denying students access to these labs is degrading the university’s product.”
In addition to 24-hour study space access, Union plans to advocate access to student dorms for students who live off campus. Currently, students who live off-campus cannot swipe into dorms, even though dorms include study spaces and dining halls.
Union is also planning another George Sherman Union Takeover.
“Last year’s takeover was the largest event BU has ever had as a student body. We want to make it a tradition,” Miller said.
Union members said they hope to improve the Center for Career Development, to widen the array of places that accept convenience points and to improve the Union website so student groups will be able to post information, photos, videos and events.
“Consider the new website a dashboard for BU students, one that we can use as a homepage to find out what’s going on and when,” Miller said.
The SUAC plans to test drive the new website over the summer, Miller said.
Miller said at least two executive board members will be on-campus at all times over the summer to ensure that initiatives are pursued.
“These are all initiatives that we’re jumpstarting during the summer and are looking to push in the fall,” Miller said.
“So the timeline is to start now, accomplish as much as we can and then re-evaluate in the fall.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
