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

Why is there a HOLE in the South 40?!  Recap
 
Sorry to see that the rain kept so many people away from what was an awesome forum on the architectural future of the South 40 Monday night!  We had one of the principal architects, officials from Bon Appetit including Nadeem Siddiqui, regional manager, and Chef Gary Saurez, Dean Justin Carroll to represent ResLife, and Vice Chancellor Steve Hoffner.  I want to run through some of the highlights for you in bullet-point form. 
 
ALSO: Watch for an update because the architects have promised to post the 3-D video of the future of the 40 on their website soon!
 
My favorite observations, in no particular order (it's worth reading through them -- I promise!):

- 4/5 of the Dining area on the S40 is still to come.  There will be a tacqueria, salad bar, Mongolian Grill, and many other stations for everyone.  Also, there will be LOADS of extra seating!

- The new fitness center will return to its rightful place above the main servery and will be much larger.

- There will be one closed off area for dining in the S40 House that can be booked for student group meetings.

- Info screens and televisions with news programs will be featured in the new building.

- An expanded Bear’s Mart concept will be put in place, intended to serve as a Whole Foods type concept.  Get Excited.

- The second floor dining will be converted to a Kosher Kitchen as all dining moves to the bottom floor.

- All dishware and silverware will be sustainable – paper items only for take out!

- Chef Gary talked about the new Chef’s Kitchen which will be a small kitchen that you can book for special events including: cooking classes, birthdays, and private dinners where the chef will cook right in front of you.  They will feature cooking classes about how to cook in your dorms (including the microwave), and they will use it to test new menu ideas.  They may include cameras to broadcast cooking classes to those who can’t make it, and they will also start testing out specialized allergy-friendly meals.

- College Hall will be built on the 40 which will serve as a Hogwarts-Style grand hall complete with (hopefully) banners to represent the various ResColleges and seating for a ton of people.

- Ruby will remain standing instead of coming down this summer.  This is the only dramatic change to the timeline due to the economic recession.

- The Swamp will be brought back to its full capacity – removing the asphalt driveway currently cutting it in half.

- Student art will hopefully be displayed both inside and out of the new buildings.

- They are hoping against all hopes to have a large water fountain in the middle of the 40 which…. It has been suggested… could be used to throw people into on hot days.

- And, lastly, they will hold student competitions later this year to name the kiosks and dining halls on the South Forty.  (I’m personally pulling for Bear’s Den… let’s not mess with tradition here!)
 
The event was fantastic!  I wish you had been there and encourage you to come to any similar events.  As I said, watch for a link to the ResLife website once they have uploaded the schematics and 3-D video tour of the new South 40.  We are all in for a treat – and I, for one, cannot wait to see it completed!

Hi everyone.  I wanted to give you a brief recap of the meeting the Campus Services Committee held today with Executive Vice Chancellor Steve Hoffner and District Manager of Bon Appetit Nadeem Siddiqui.  I'll do bullet points to make life easier:

- They know the S40 is a challenge and an inconvenience to daily life for students.

- Changes are coming within the next two weeks to dining on campus.

- Customer counts will be used to restructure dining hours at all locations.

- The second half of S40 Dining will have 600 more seats and an expanded servery with more options.

- Dining Services is planning to test various new methods for making S40 Dining more efficient in the limited space (from menu changes to altering the way food is ordered -- stay tuned).

- They are against raising prices any higher.

- They are adjusting staff schedules to have more people working during heavy traffic times.

- Bear Mart has been experiencing a fair amount of theft, so surveillance cameras will be installed soon.

- Sustainable dishware will be on the 40 next year once the second phase of building is complete -- which will have the industrial dishwasher.

- Remember that using re-usable cups (Nalgenes, corn mugs, etc.) gets you a coffee discount!

- Webfood will be moving to the 40 soon -- hopefully before the end of first semester.

- Dining services is looking for input on the future of Subway on campus.

- They want students to begin diverting traffic from the DUC during lunch to the lower level of Mallinckrodt for seating -- this will become necessary come winter time when nobody wants to sit outside.

WHAT DID WE ASK FOR?

> Bringing: cranberries and quinoa to the DUC salad line, bringing back grilled chicken, bringing more hot Kosher meals to campus, and adding sour cream to the quesadilla line in Ursas.

>Consider creating a Crepe Night in Ursas for those who miss last year's crepes.

>Look into using biodegradable plastic water cups instead of regular plastic ones.

>Continue to work with us and be transparent about changes in dining hours and in how to facilitate more efficiency both on the 40 and in the DUC.

REMEMBER

*Please consider attending the forum in Mudd Multi-Purpose on Monday September 21 from 8-9:30pm about the future of the South 40.

*Please watch for an event in the near future where you will have the opportunity to hear directly from dining services and ask questions about dining on campus.

 

It was a great, successful, and productive meeting.  They are really interested in making dining better on campus!  Watch for more updates and I hope to see you at the events mentioned above!

Best,

Greg

There are three new entities within Student Union related to environmental sustainability:

• the office of Executive Advisor for Sustainability,
• the Green Events Commission (GEC), and 
• the Special Executive Task Force for Sustainable Events (SETSE).

Student Union is working on a project to make campus events greener. In order to be successful, the project must adhere to three principles. The results must be collaborative (including student groups in the process), concrete (specific guidelines...not just vague ideas), and practical (keep the essence of campus events intact).

Student Union is taking concrete steps to work with student groups and make campus events greener. This objective will be accomplished through three new entities: an Executive Advisor for Sustainability, a Green Events Commission and a Special Executive Task Force for Sustainable Events.

Executive Advisor for Sustainability 
I have nominated Will Fischer to be the Executive Advisor for Sustainability. Will is the former president of Green Action and has a contagious passion for environmentalism. Once confirmed by the Legislature, Will will advise Student Union on the effectiveness of various sustainability initiatives and will provide recommendations for appropriate policy changes. He will also be a leader on the Green Events Commission and will co-chair the Special Executive Task Force for Sustainable Events.

You can contact Will by email at sustinability@su.wustl.edu

Green Events Commission
A Green Events Commission (GEC) now exists in the Student Union executive branch. The GEC will be led by Will Fischer and chairpersons charged with research, consulting and publicity. These four individuals, in addition to other interested students, will offer free consulting services to student groups who want to make their events greener. The GEC will also conduct research on sustainability best practices and will submit reports to the Special Executive Task Force for Sustainable Events.

Special Executive Task Force for Sustainable Events
A Special Executive Task Force for Sustainable Events (SETSE) now exists in the Student Union executive cabinet. The SETSE will be co-chaired by Will Fischer and Vice President of Administration, Trevor Mattea. The rest of the group will consist of a representative from Senate, Treasury, cultural groups, charity groups, the Greek community, Team 31, and the Vice President of Programming.

The SETSE will evaluate research done by the GEC to formulate practical and sound recommendations to form guidelines for green events. These recommendations will be submitted to the Legislature to be passed as Student Union policy.

Please post any questions or comments. If you wish, take a look at the actual executive order that makes all of the above possible.