At the February 28 Student Government (SG) meeting, the general manager of the Grace Watson dining hall gave a presentation on its current and future suitability efforts. Various senators also presented their mid-year reports and progress updates.

Improvements and Changes to Gracie’s

Scott Vadney, general manager of the Grace Watson dining hall, stated that with little way to change the physical layout, he aims to improve operations and food venues for sustainability goals.

 One of the new stations, called Simply Eats (previously proposed as Solutions), targets students with allergies or vegan preferences. The station provides over 260 different recipes that have none of the eight common food allergens and are gluten free. The staff manning the station do not work in any other stations and all food is specially prepared in a separate area.

Vadney made it his goal to reduce Gracie’s garbage outtake by 50,000 pounds. His many programs to achieve this goal include partnering with Recover Rochester and Foodlink to recover usable food and materials, sending off organic material to be composted, green to-go containers, greater use of bamboo plates at various stations and the recovery of scrap metal from equipment. So far they have diverted well over 66,000 pounds of waste. Any additional suggestions or comments can directed to Vadney through email or suggestion boxes.

SG Mid-Year reports

Graduate Senator: With various goals to improve communication and relationships between graduate students, Hrushikesh Sagar has created a Facebook page and a mailing list. He hopes to get more involvement from grad students, create a grad student orientation and a symposium.

On Campus Apartment Student Association: This group stated that they have sponsored and organized a large list of events and are hoping to better promote their name and services in the future.

Cross Registered Senator: Keith Delk, a second year Public Relations and Advertising major, hopes to improve captioning services, provide better leadership opportunities for NTID students and provide smoother transition for new students. He has participated in a variety of committees and has talked to the college faculty for information and input.

AALANA Collgeiate Association (ACA):  Lydia Nicole discussed the variety of events in the fall and for the coming spring. ACA hopes to increase awareness of ALANNA related issues and provide help for affiliates.

Global Union: Paul Janampa discussed goals for the year and events they sponsored. They hope to adapt to semesters and draw in more members.

CAB: Taylor Gosselin, Events Coordinator, discussed CAB’s current goals for diverse events, social media, the creation of a new event signup system and sustainability by reducing paper usage.