Smoking, cage-free eggs proposals among Union’s successes, members say

For Student Union, the last few weeks have been marked by progress with the approval of several previously debated initiatives, members said.

“From the Center for Career Development to smoking, we’re really pushing ourselves to do something that has a significant impact across the campus,” said College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Nicholas Pantages, a member of Union’s advocacy committee.

Pantages said the Union has passed a smoking courtesy campaign that will focus on raising awareness on smoking’s effects on smokers and non-smokers alike. He called the solution a product of a semester’s worth of debate.

CAS freshman Sean Gunning, a member of the advocacy committee, said the final solution seemed to have improved greatly on initial talks.

“I am very proud of the 180-degree turn the advocacy committee took with the smoking on campus project,” Gunning said. “It is now a courtesy campaign and I don’t see BU having a problem with the advertising that will result.”

In addition to the smoking campaign, the senate passed a cage-free eggs proposal for campus dining halls, is considering the creation of a Union parliament and has continued discussion on changing the election cycle.

“Things like cage-free eggs and a student parliament are conversations that everyone has access to,” said Union President Howard Male in his final presidential address of the semester. “Students should be using us as a resource to see BU become the community they want it to be.”

Male, a senior in the School of Hospitality and School of Management, said the proposal exemplifies the success of the proposal process, which was created a few years ago.

“That’s why we made the proposal process … to have basic information to outline it, to come up with that proposal to discuss a vote, … to ensure that we’re getting these ideas and can support fellow student to get what they want to do,” he said.

Excluding office supplies, paper and printing, Union spent nearly all of its money on the Boston Intercollegiate Leadership Conference. The senate approved the spending of $416.07 on the conference, more than any other non-business related expenditure this semester.

SMG junior Molly Meehan, Union’s vice president of finance, said the conference gave members opportunities to develop a sense of community with other student leaders.

“These conferences, which occur once a semester, are great opportunities to learn from other school’s student governments and to coordinate intercollegiate efforts to improve student life in Greater Boston,” Meehan said.

Union Secretary Sophie Miller, a sophomore in CAS, said she felt Union has made “major headway” on members’ long-standing initiatives, as well as the development of new ideas presented at the last meeting.

“I’m looking forward to watching our newest ones begin to grow and come closer to fruition,” Miller said.

Pantages said he acknowledges areas for improvement, such as student awareness of Union, a lack of student input and slow-paced progress.

“Though we’re not perfect, we as a Senate try very hard to make students’ lives at BU more comfortable,” Pantages said. “This takes time, and because we tackle a lot of issues at once, the progress doesn’t come as quickly as we would like.”

The ideal, he said, would be for students to express their concerns publicly and to contribute to Union’s efforts to improve student life.

“Personally, I really want to focus on hearing students’ concerns and talking to anyone about current issues that we as a senate have discussed at meetings,” he said.