Senate meeting tonight last of semester

By Stephen George

Senate meeting tonight last of semester

Tonight marks the final Student Senate session of this semester, and one of the most hotly contested issues could be resolved.

Discussion is expected and a decision is possible on the Adult Commuter Center- Evening Student Services (ACCESS) center at the 7 p.m. meeting, which is being held in the Business School auditorium.

The Student Government Association has been deliberating the fate of the ACCESS center for the majority of this semester.

The center, which is funded solely by SGA, is facing possible closure as a result of SGA’s inability to account for the center’s yearly monetary increases.

Three possibilities for the future of ACCESS were introduced by SGA president Chris Marlin at last month’s session.

The first is the closure of the center and the assimilation of the services it offers into other university- funded centers, such as Resources for Academic Achievement (REACH). Included in this proposal is either the reallocation or refund of approximately $100,000 generated by the current $3 per-semester student fee that is used by SGA to fund ACCESS.

The second proposal involves the maintenance of ACCESS in its current form, which would require a revision of the center’s mission to be more inclusive of commuter students. It would also require a renovation of the current center, which could include a glass front instead of the solid wall the room in Davidson Hall currently features. The current two-member staff would be downsized to one full-time staff member to help ease the budget troubles between the center and SGA.

The third option would be to create unstaffed satellite versions of the ACCESS center all across campus, which would mean the dissolution of the center in its current form and a campus-wide assimilation of services.