Last week the AUSA Senate discussed issues ranging from overall campus safety to student organizations as well as the accessibility of the DU campus for disabled students.
Senator Jamie Grim announced that students will have the opportunity to sign a banner congratulating Chancellor Coombe on his inauguration. The signing took place outside of Sturm from 10:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m. yesterday and outside of Penrose Library today at the same time.
There has also been a change in the AUSA elections schedule. The polls will now close at noon on May 3 and the results will be announced at 5 p.m. on the same day.
Senator Victoria Villescas has been talking with Safe Ride about changing the Safe Ride route so that students will be able to use Safe Ride as a shuttle to ferry them across campus between classes. Safe Ride’s current route takes 45 minutes to complete.
President Brian Kelley and the rest of the Senate extended their congratulations to Matt Carle for winning the Hobey Baker Award and discussed a variety of ways that the Senate could acknowledge his accomplishment in DU hockey.
Kelley Pasmanick, who spends much of her time in a wheel chair because of a disability spoke before the senate to inform them on how hard it is for many people with disabilities to get around campus and is urging the Senate to take initiative in this matter.
Pasmanick talked to the Senate about how hard it is for her to do things such as getting to class. One of her classes in the John Green Hall she could not attend because the building has no elevator.
The university is not required to put an elevator in John Green Hall because it is considered an “historic building.”
Many other buildings are not easy for handicapped students to get around in. Even Sturm Hall is not easily accessible as the elevator in Sturm Hall is faulty. In buildings all across campus handicapped students are forced go out of their way and enter buildings through the side or the back. This can be hazardous during the winter when there is ice on the ground and a person is walking around on crutches.
Pasmanick said she was given every reason to believe that DU would be easily accessible to her.
“When I first applied here Chancellor Ritchie came to me in Georgia and told me to come,” said Pasmanick, “He promised me that DU was accessible and that promise hasn’t been fulfilled.”
“What no one seems to realize is that disabled children will become disabled young adults who want to go to college,” stated Pasmanick, “and we will fight to make it better for them.”
The Center for Multicultural Excellence thanked the Senate for the support of its summit. Each year the number of participants has been increasing and an expected 200 participants are planned for this year.
The Senate also addressed various items of business including future Senate planning, fall quarter orientation, and extended discussion on sexaul assault.
Because student organizations do not have an adequate central location to meet the Senate discussed different ideas on how to create a central way for them to post and plan events and meetings. This will most likely be done through a website or a campus life calendar.
The Senate discussed the possibility of doing a “DU for dummies” session during orientation week next year to help the incoming first-year students better adjust to DU life.
There was also a discussion about reducing sexual assault on campus. The Senate entertained the idea of having Campus Safety patrol the halls in the dorms but the Senate believed that RA’s are more effective because they have a personal relationship with the students on their floor and are the ones that students are more likely to trust and want to talk to after they have been sexually abused. Campus Safety officers are also needed outside to protect students.
Studies have shown that one of the best ways to prevent sexual assault is through education and that is what the senate plans to do.
