By Carolyn K. Lay
Assistant News Editor
President Thomas K. Hearn Jr. initiated the new executive officers of Student Government this morning. Among the four initiates was junior Ryan Opel, the new SG speaker of the house, who said his main focus for next year would be to "maximize the efficiency of the legislative branch."
Opel said that many students do not realize that each student has a legislator assigned to him or her.
His main concern, he said, is "How can SG meet student body needs if SG has never met its student body?"
He would like to give opportunities for students to voice their concerns. Opel foresees legislators meeting with individual constituents to get their opinions.
"The issue of representation is serious, and in order to meet student needs, we need to meet the students," Opel said.
Along with making student concerns heard, Opel would like to change the mentality of the legislature.
"When (the legislature) meet, the personal concerns of each legislator are brought to the floor, not the student body," Opel said.
He would like to make all bills accessible to students. "All bills must be finalized five days in advance," Opel said in order to let students review the bill. Legislators would be able to put the bill on the web page, tell their constituents and discuss with the students the details of the bill to be voted on.
Opel also wants to look into the new alcohol policy that was implemented this year. He said the administration will be doing an in-house review of the policy, and he would like to see the results of the review.
He is concerned with health problems the new policy has produced, including drunk-driving. "If the new (policy) puts students at risk, I want to make sure that is not happening," Opel said.
Another task Opel is looking into concerns parking. Opel believes many of the solutions suggested thus far are long-term and more short-term goals are needed.
Opel said that currently the money received from parking tickets goes into the university's general fund. "We need to see that a portion of the money from tickets goes to a good cause that students care about," he said.
Opel is also looking at food service options for students. He hopes to facilitate the use of meal cards off campus, an issue that was discussed last year.
"I don't know the status of past conversations, but I would like to restart them," he said.
According to Opel, using meal cards off campus would create competition for ARAMARK, which currently holds a monopoly on campus food services.
"If we can used our meal cards off campus, ARAMARK will be forced to improve. The lack of competition does nothing to improve quality," he said.
Opel also praised the work of this year's executive members. He said he would like to continue the hard work and momentum this year's officers and legislators created.
Some of the things he would like to continue into next year are the Washington, house for study abroad, curriculum review and improvement of race relations and minority issues.