SGA Deliberates on Several Campus Improvements

SGA meeting on April 3 (photo by Luke Dias)

By Colton Hawkins, Erin Crooks, Matt Thomas, Luke Dias and Isabella Weston

At the SGA meeting on Wednesday, senators contemplated several areas of improving campus life at Trinity.

Changes to the upper campus was part of the discussion. The senators agreed that more furniture and sitting areas are needed there. Currently, there are only some benches and white chairs. “We have received a $1,000 donation that we hadn’t even known about,” said SGA President Ty Tinker. He hoped to use this money to add more chairs and tables around campus to create a more “community vibe.”

The senators also talked about adding more lighting to the upper campus since it gets rather dark in the late night. Students could feel unsafe with the dimness and not enough emergency poles.


Senator Nicholas Pereda suggested putting up Christmas lights all around campus like what UIW does. “It would be a good way to add light in the dark areas on campus as well as making Trinity’s already gorgeous campus even more appealing,” he said.

Several senators agreed with this idea, but Senator Ben Falcon noted that adding Christmas lights “might be offensive to some who have different religious backgrounds.”

The long lines at the food court in the Coates Center also drew attention. Senator Esther Omegba noted that the food court gets extremely crowded, especially during the lunch hours. It is a potential safety hazard that students don’t have enough room to stand and wait in line.

Falcon pointed out that the islands in the middle of the room, with all the cereals and Freshii menus, could be removed “because the items on there aren’t as hot commodity as the space it is taking could be.”

Jamie Thompson, director for student involvement and an adviser to SGA, said “maybe you can plant that seed now, given the popularity of Revolve. There could be changes made.” Tinker said this matter will be brought to the SGA Dining Committee.

Recently SGA took the initiative to have line dividers at the Starbucks in the library, making the lines there more organized.

The senators also visited the sewage problems in the Mars McLean Hall bathrooms and suggested to bring it to maintenance’s attention, as well as the idea of making TigerPaws more user friendly and less stressful for class registrations.

Members of the SGA view campus improvements as a crucial part of their role. Julia Jameson, who has been in the SGA for just a few months, was proud to see the impact.

“Just recently, there were concerns over cross-contamination in the omelet line at Mabee. This was especially troubling for people with dietary or religious restrictions,” she said. “However, through SGA, there is now a new system to avoid these types of instances from occurring.”