Student Union

Hey everyone! My name is Mamatha Challa, and I'm in the College of Arts and Sciences. Currently, I am serving as a senator on Student Union, and I work on SU Senate’s “University Initiatives” Committee.

On October 30th, I had a wonderful meeting with my assigned Administrator, Mr. Art Ackermann. Art Ackermann is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning and Management. Our conversation focused on two main topics: making the Danforth campus more bike-friendly, and the idea of implementing a bicycle sharing system on campus.

Bike-Friendly Pathways/Docks
In case you don’t know, our Administration is currently in the middle of a large initiative to make the Danforth Campus more bike-friendly. In our meeting, Mr. Ackermann discussed many plans related to this initiative. Examples of projects that the Administration is considering are separated rider and pedestrian pathways, specific bicycle parking docks strategically located around campus, and teaming up with the “Great Rivers Greenway.” Part of Great Rivers Greenway’s mission is to interconnect St. Louis with one long bicycle path, and our University is considering helping out by placing a part of the City’s bicycle path through the Danforth campus.

Implementing a University-recognized Bicycle-Sharing Program on Campus
After hearing all this fascinating news about our school’s current movement towards increasing and maintaining bicycle usage on campus, I was incredibly excited to present Mr. Ackermann with our idea of implementing a bike-sharing program on campus. Bike sharing systems are systems where a fleet of bicycles is available at a network of unattended stations for short-term use. Currently, our committee would consider strategically placing Bike Share docks at locations that have a lot of bicycle traffic, such as the DUC, the South 40, and the Sam Fox School. Students would be able to access a bicycle at a station by either keying in or swiping their campus card. Then, the student could use that bike to travel to another station on-campus. After dropping off the bike at that station, any other student would be able to access it.

Mr. Ackermann seemed interested to learn more about the idea, and is going to be contacting one of the company’s that we proposed as a system supplier. In return, he asked for our committee to get him more information on how exactly bike-sharing systems work on other college campuses. Our next step will be contacting other universities with these types of programs, in order to get student testimonials about the true quality of these systems on campuses, as well as to get any extra advice. Additionally, our committee is putting together a student survey, which will help gauge the amount of student interest there is in SU working to implement such a system. I’ll be meeting with Mr. Ackermann in two weeks, and he’s also asked Liz Kramer (who works on Sustainability issues for the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor of Administration) to help out. Our hope, as of right now, is to use all this information and discussion in order to properly implement some sort of pilot program in the future.

That’s it for now! If you are even remotely interested in this topic, have some suggestions, or would like to learn more, feel free to comment/email me and let me know!

Thanks!

-Mamatha Challa

I serve in a relatively unique role with regards to student technology at Wash. U. - I am in Senate (of course), serving as the liaison on the Campus Services Committee to STS. I also am a member of the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), which formed last year as a way for students to have input into technology concerns and also as a channel of communication that previously was not well served between students and the providers of the technology that they use at the University. Finally, I also serve on the Student Online Services Project Communications committee (as a member of STAC), which is working to communicate the upcoming changes to student email with the advent of Live@edu to the student population as well as the rest of the University (faculty, staff, deans, administrators, and others) - you'll be hearing from us soon!

When I caught wind of the issues students were having with Internet on campus three weeks ago, I immediately sprang into action. I talked with Barb Braun, the director of STS, to ask what might be causing the issue. She and the rest of STS had begun to hear rumblings of problems plaguing students' Internet connections, but did not have hard data as to where and when the issues were arising. Since STS was unsure what was causing the instability, I suggested that we create a survey to send out to students that would hopefully pinpoint these connectivity issues. Such a survey was sent out to all students in ResLife housing last Wednesday, October 14. If you haven't taken it yet, please take it now - it closes tomorrow, October 20!

Once the results of the survey come back, I will hopefully be able to provide another update as to what the issues actually are and where STS will be looking to improve Internet connectivity.

Another update about student technology: STS is in the process of implementing a new printing program. Some of you already know how to print to a lab from your computer, but after the switchover is complete in your building, you will need to print to a virtual universal STS printer and will then be able to release your print job from any lab on the North Side or the South 40. Find out when your dorm will be switching to the new system on the STS Web site and read more about the switchover in Student Life.

Those are all the technology updates I have for you today. Have a great week!

Hello again!

I had another meeting recently, this time with my liaison, Dean Justin Carroll of Residential Life. We talked about a multitude of things. Basically:

*ResLife takes student input into great consideration. They have a great and longstanding history with SU and CS40.

*He understands the difficult situation of living on the 40 this year. The long-term benefits, however, outway the short term irritations. As someone who has seen the full, D video plans for the *new* and *improved* Forty, I can vouch for that. Which leads me to:

*We are going to work together to make sure the student body is more informed about what is actually going on. So many people just see nonstop construction, and don't have a vision of what the final product will be because no one has given that to them. We are hoping to make the 3D video plan publicly accessable through the website. We are also considering drafting a letter or newsletter about the changes that are going on, and what we can expect next. Knowledge really eases the frustration.

Since he is my liaison, I will continue to meet with him. Please email me with any questions, concerns, complaints, or compliments. My email is ehjordan@wustl.edu.

-Liz Jordan

Sophomore, C-Serve Committee

hey again!

i also met on friday with leslie heusted, the director of the duc. we're trying to proliferate the amount of student artwork in the building, and so we also met with some representatives from Art Council. Firstly, we hope to create art shows in the duc that would last for several weeks at a time, featuring all student artwork. also, we're trying to add artwork to furnish the career center, and are going to be approaching art students about this shortly. 

let me know if you have any questions!

michael

hey guys!

on firday i met with martha tillman, the director of the s40 fitness center. she was really nice and helped clear up a lot of questions i had. the space that they currently occupy is only temporary, and the facility they're moving to next year is MUCH larger and sounds amazing. they had a problem with the tv cables but they just fixed it so now they have 3 tv's up. next year there are supposed to be tvs for every treadmill. they also have mats available for us to use, but they are not kept out at all times for lack of space. as far as weight machines/free weights go, she doesn't think they have room for any. she's considering putting a free weight rack in however, so she's looking into it. 

feel free to contact me with any q's!

michael brodsky