Saint Mary's Student Government Association (SGA) discussed ways to promote the extended hours of the Student Center at their meeting Monday night.
The Saint Mary's Student Center stays open until midnight on weekdays now, as opposed to previous years when it closed at 10 p.m. SGA sponsors the later hours and wants to make sure that students are taking advantage of the Student Center.
The Student Center offers a spacious lounge for studying and a TV room for student use. The center's main draws are the Cyber Café and the C-Store, which do not stay open as late as the center itself. SGA is going to see if they can persuade these places to stay open later as well, but that effort is still underway, Hoffman said.
Other ideas to make the Student Center a more attractive place to study and meet are the possibility of vending machines, and a student lounge with games like ping-pong as a place to kick back and take a study break. According to Hoffman, these ideas have not been looked into yet.
SGA is making an effort to inform students of the extended hours to see if the use of the Student Center will increase with more publicity.
SGA has a busy week after Fall break. The executive board will meet next week to make funding allotments for the recognized clubs on campus. Clubs on campus will also be able to begin to put in requests for sponsorships after the break, Hoffman said.
The executive board will also be reviewing SGA bylaws over break to see if they feel any changes are needed and will present those ideas to the rest of the SGA board at the meeting following break.
The bylaws deal with internal SGA policy. For example, they state how elections are held, and the process of passing resolutions.
While their Monday meeting was brief, SGA president Jenny Hoffman is very pleased with the way the year is shaping up thus far.
"I'm extremely proud of what we've accomplished in this quarter," Hoffman told the board. "I'm excited to get started with sponsorships after break."
