Student Association plans to send its statement calling for the only person convicted in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing to serve out the remaining 19 years of his 25-year sentence to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

‘Al-Megrahi needs to serve out his sentence to fulfill his punishment for the lives he ended,’ states the resolution, which was endorsed by this year’s Remembrance Scholars.

In addition to the statement on Pan Am, the assembly wants to address overcrowding in residence halls by lowering the housing requirement to one year, rather than two. SA also reaffirmed its removed stance on the changes to greek life event policy.

The Pan Am statement endorses the request by four United States senators for the U.S. State Department to investigate British Petroleum’s role in the release of the Libyan man, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

SA also plans to send the statement to four senators who called for an investigation: Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

The 1988 plane crash killed 259 people, including 35 Syracuse University students, over Lockerbie, Scotland. Al-Megrahi was released on compassion grounds more than a year ago when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The release garnered more controversy after the doctor who diagnosed him with prostate cancer and three months to live said he was pressured to make a false diagnosis, and after word of a deal between BP and the British government over al-Megrahi’s release came to light.

Jon Barnhart said he hoped the statement would draw students to the remembrance events in October.

SA is also working with the Residence Hall Association to solve the issue of overcrowded residence halls. SA plans to talk to university officials about reducing the two-year mandatory housing agreement to one year, allowing sophomores to live off campus, Barnhart said.

Lounges in residence halls across campus have been converted into triples and quads, leaving floors of students without common space and resident advisors without a place to hold floor programs.

‘This overcrowding is hindering what can happen on the floors,’ said Taylor Carr, director of advocacy for RHA.

Lounges provide students with a common place to hang out, watch television and build a community. Without them, he said, ‘the community is being diminished.’

SA will maintain its removed stance on the new, more restricted greek party policy, leaving the student voice in the matter to the Social Responsibility Committee, made up of members of greek life and university administrators.

‘Greeks are looking to hold the best events,’ Barnhart said. ‘They want people not in greek life to enjoy them just as much.

‘I’m upset people see this as a direct assault on greek life,’ he said. ‘I’m sure we can deal with a few wristbands at a few parties if it means keeping our best greek organizations on campus.’

SA’s role is to increase the safety of students who might go to parties in the off-campus neighborhood by encouraging students living in the area to get to know their residential neighbors and to abandon assumptions they might have about their older neighbors, Barnhart said.

abknox@syr.edu

Published on September 13, 2010 at 12:00 pm