A lot happened during the two hours that the Student Government Association met on Tuesday, Nov. 14, including a visit from President Noland, the final BUC Fund meeting of the semester and several proposed pieces of legislation.
President Noland presented during SGA’s open forum portion of the meeting to address several topics of interest on campus. He discussed the progress of construction projects including the Culp Center renovations, the future Martin Fine Arts Center and additions to Lamb Hall.
“We’ve not had this amount of construction occur on our campus in this compressed time frame since the 1960s, when a lot of the buildings that you take classes in were built,” Noland said to SGA.
Noland also discussed how the campus will move forward in safety precautions. This semester, there have been two gun threats reported, two incidents of white supremacy papers being displayed and, most recently, flyers were posted in Gilbreath Hall that said the Holocaust was a hoax.
“As I look at things that have occurred across the semester, I can tell you I’m concerned, and we are making significant changes to policy, to operations, as well as how we look at campus safety,” Noland said.
Noland said the university would be taking extra precautions at large ETSU-organized events to ensure safety, including increased officers, bag checks and body scanning. He also discussed how command centers have recently been implemented, so information can go to one place during an event in case of any emergency.
The events from the semester have also encouraged safety officials to consider having bag checks and metal detection scans for basketball games and graduation, according to Noland. Additionally, broken locks on classroom doors are being replaced and improved security camera measurements are on the agenda.
“But there are things that have happened this semester, and the way in which we as a campus have kind of rallied around one another reflects what makes this place special,” Noland said. “I think we have a lot of work to do as an institution. I think we have a lot of work to do as an administration team, but I can guarantee we’re trying.”
During the BUC Fund portion of the meeting, SGA allocated funds to Buccaneer Anime Club’s ETSUCon and the speech and debate team. This was the last BUC Fund meeting of the semester.
Legislation from Nov. 7 regarding a law-understanding test was not discussed during the meeting, as it was discovered there was a similar program already being put in motion.
However, four pieces of legislation were proposed. Topics for the legislation were an additional AED in Centennial Hall, a locker room for the marching band, additional email security measurements and reform of the campus sustainability fee for bicycles.
The legislation has been assigned to Senate subcommittees for review and will be discussed in the concluding SGA meetings of the semester.
