At the May 3 Student Government (SG) meeting, an update on student auxiliary services was given, changes to sexual assault policies were presented, revisions to graduate senator selections were presented and representatives from the committee for the smoking policy presented.

Student Auxiliary Services Yearly update

Howard Ward, assistant vice president of Student Auxiliary Services (SAS), brought to attention the various successes and improvements of SAS. Firstly, relations and communications with SG have greatly improved with an increase in  relations with students and staff improving as well. Dining services has found success in the additions of “Simply Eats” to the Grace Watson menu, visiting chefs to Crossroads and the addition of Hale and Hearty soups to various places on campus. Expansion of night time eateries is planned for the future. Housing operations has seen an improvement  in social media attention noting an increase in  followers and has been setting nation-wide examples with its room-matching system and gender inclusive housing. Renovations of the Colony Manor apartments is planned in the future to integrate smart technology into some spaces.

Policy Changes: C6.0 and C6.1

Judy Bender, assistant vice president of Human Resources and Bobby Colon, chief legal officer, presented changes to the sexual assault policy. The main reason for the changes is to update the policies to meet government standards and change some of the language. Originally, only C6.0 existed which covered the entire policy but with the revisions  has now been split into two with C6.0 detailing legal matters and procedures and C6.1 detailing non-legal procedures. Some changes include listing confidentiality levels and obligations staff and faculty have, timing for closing of cases and streamline of certain policies. The changes were endorsed by SG to be voted on during Institute Council next week.

Revision of Graduate Senator Selection Process

Hrushikesh Sagar, graduate senator, presented a small change to the graduate senator election process. He proposed to have the elections more closely resemble those for freshman senator so someone does not have to be voted on in the fall. The decision was tabled to next week.

Smoking Policy Revised

Donna Rubin, Clinical Director for NTID Psychological Services, presented the final revisions to the smoking policy that plans to ban all forms of tobacco and smoking products on campus. The policy has remained largely unchanged since its last presentation. Student Government did not endorse the policy which will be voted on during next week’s Institute Council