The Student Association continued to marshal its opposition to the new scheduling proposal Monday, announcing two new initiatives and swearing in several new student University Senators.

The SA will conduct a survey to gauge the student body’s opinion of the new proposal. The survey, still in its planning stages, will be conducted scientifically in order to increase its credibility with faculty members on the University Senate, said SA President Andrew Thomson, a senior information management and political science major.

‘It’s important for it to be as scientific as possible in order for the faculty to take it seriously,’ Thomson said.

SA held off on starting a survey because Undergraduates for a Better Education had originally discussed the option of a survey, but Thomson said he doesn’t know what UBE’s current plans are. The results of the survey will be given to the caucus of student University Senators before the Senate votes on the matter at its Oct. 15 meeting.

In other SA news:

n The SA assembly confirmed Chelsea Selby, Rebecca Baden, Sung Kyu Hung, Allison Mac and Keloo Yao to seats on the University Senate. Assembly members grilled the candidates about their opinion of the new scheduling proposal. The slate of candidates had a range of reactions to the plan. Mac, an undeclared sophomore in the College of Human Services and Health Professions, said she supported the plan because it would allow students to take more classes.

‘It doesn’t really address the concerns of the students; it just creates more conflicts,’ said Baden, a sophomore public relations and political science major and one of the most vocal critics of the plan.

Thomson said he welcomed the differing opinions in the cadre of student senators, saying it reflected the mixture of student feelings on campus.

‘I don’t think there’s anybody except for doctors Cavanagh and Hemphill who are 100 percent for or against this plan,’ Thomson said.

n The SA passed a bill which would allow student groups that require yearly operating budgets to also request funding for programming. The SA is among the groups that draw a yearly budget from the student fee. The SA Committee on Administrative Operations developed the bill as a way for SA to take a more active role in programming, said Parliamentarian Andrew Lederman, a sophomore international relations major and one of the sponsors of the bill.

Published on September 22, 2003 at 12:00 pm