On Oct. 31, the Senate held their fourth meeting of the semester. Dr. Senese attended this meeting as a special guest and discussed some of his plans for the future Wellness Center. The Wellness Center will be around 50,000 square feet and three stories tall; it will include basketball courts, several multipurpose rooms and a lazy river. In the future, Senese also plans to have an autonomous vehicle run along the service road to take students to and from the Wellness Center.
Senese also has plans for the bookstore and the dining hall. Senese plans to turn the bookstore into a Starbucks or an Einstein’s Bagels. He also discussed repurposing the whole Student Community Center as a dining area.
Of the committee reports this week, here are some of the most important:
•The Philanthropy Committee, chaired by Lisa Ogueke, is currently looking for faculty to help them get in touch with department heads and other resources. This is part of the committee’s plans to find more volunteer options in fields related to a student’s major.
“We wanted to get more students involved in volunteering, not just the ones who [are required]to for their respective organizations,” said Ogueke.
The Philanthropy Committee is currently researching volunteer opportunities, so the plan to add more volunteer opportunities is still in its early stages. However, the committee plans to have concrete information by the end of the month. Their current plan is to host an event similar to Saint Leo Serves, where students will come in one weekend and choose somewhere to volunteer. For the volunteer opportunities that aren’t able to be done during the weekend of the event (because of time constraints or because the volunteer option will occur on a separate date), Ogueke said that she would try her best to keep everyone notified on what events will be offered and how people can get involved in them.
Also, Ogueke is also trying to get in touch with the National Brain Tumor Society. The committee plans to host a 5K walk for brain cancer awareness where all the proceeds would go to the National Brain Tumor Society. She also plans to make a website for this event.
“Our goal, from the conceptualization to the actual execution of the event, [is to have this event]be a Saint Leo University effort…From what we’ve heard, just from word of mouth, we’ve had a lot of support especially at the upper level,” said Ogueke.
Ogueke continued to say that more information on how to get involved with this event will be up once the website is created and that the best way to get involved with this event is to make a team, do some fundraising and participate in the walk.
The committee is also getting involved with First Year Experience’s Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive.
•The Environmental Committee, chaired by Victor Bague, plans to put recycling bins for plastic bottles in the residence halls; they just need approval from Residence Life. Additionally, the committee plans to have a weekly recycling competition in the Bowl. The event is designed to promote friendly competition among the clubs and organizations and to strengthen the sense of community among the students.
“One of the goals of having these collection days is to have people outside…and to try to make [going outdoors]more community-based. Instead of someone staying in their room, [they’ll be] more inclined to go out and hang out with people,” said Bague.
The weekly competitions are planned to start Nov. 13 and are planned to continue every Tuesday.
•The Research and Marketing Committee, chaired by Romario Williams, is working with Career Services to add more jobs to Handshake. They are looking on job posting sites like Linkedin and Glassdoor to find more jobs both locally and nationwide.
•The Freshman Committee, chaired by Keishawn Mendez, discussed their plans for their first meet and greet event, Cookout and Volleyball. The event will be hosted between Benoit and Henderson on Nov. 13 from 6 to 8 p.m.
•The Sophomore Committee, chaired by Rose Foley, finalized its plans for a scholarship. There will be two scholarships worth $1,000 each. Anyone with sophomore standing (30-60 credit hours) can apply. They also shared their proposed events. The committee plans to have a spelling bee, a pool party, movies in the Bowl, a lock-in and a campuswide game of manhunt.
•The Junior Committee, chaired by Giulia Gourgue, has been researching places to go on for their class trip. They are currently in contact with Disney World and Disney Springs. However, they also discussed going to a concert.
•The Appropriations Committee, chaired by De’joun Redden, allocated funds for the Intercultural Student Association’s International Food night. The event will consist of free food and performances, along with a fashion show hosted by the Carribean Students Association. The main event will take place Nov. 14 from 6 to 9 p.m, and the fashion show will be from 6 to 7 p.m.
•The Judicial Committee, also chaired by Rose Foley, discussed methods on replacing senators who leave the Senate. They decided that they will interview potential replacement senators and then present that person to the other senators. If the person is approved by the senators, then the person becomes the replacement senator.
