By Amanda Falzon
Thanks to the use of e-mail and Facebook.com, the Student Government Association is now putting into effect suggestions that University students have submitted online.
After three hours of debate Tuesday night, SGA passed three resolutions that senators hope will benefit the student body by improving the quality of life on campus. Though successfully pushed through Senate, the measures now pend approval of University administrators.
Andrea Schwartz, student services chair of SGA, proposed the ideas after reading comments and posts that students left on a Facebook group that SGA created and named “Change Hofstra.”
“The whole point of the group is so that every single person on this campus can rip into us and tell us exactly what is wrong with [the] University,” SGA President Peter DiSilvio said. He added that students have been telling them how the campus can be improved and that they “are just trying to accomplish that.”
Schwartz’s first resolution at the meeting was to provide students bus transportation from campus to John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports.
“I know a lot of people live out of the state. They are from California and other states, other countries, and there is no way for them to get to the airport besides public transportation,” Schwartz said. “There is public transportation to JFK, but not to LaGuardia; and a taxi ride costs $40 both ways before tip.”
With a new transportation service, students can get home without the extra cost of taxis, Schwartz added.
Senators’ support for the measure was reflected in their votes, as well as in their words.
“I’m very glad SGA took the recommendations and disgruntlements of students seriously,” said Kathleen Hunker, chairwoman of the SGA fundraising committee.
“Hofstra has, for the past few years, strived to reach out and absorb a diverse student body, both internationally and cross-country. This measure reflects that desire and promotes the interests of the forthcoming student body.”
The second resolution asks that the Blue Beetle route be expanded to Stop and Shop, Target and the Mineola train station. As of now, the Blue Beetle only travels to Pathmark, Roosevelt Field Mall and the Hempstead train station.
“The Blue Beetle route needs to be expanded upon in a few ways because life does not begin and end with the mall,” DiSilvio said.
Not only is fixing the transportation service on the to-do list, but adding a new type of laundry service is also. Schwartz and DiSilvio recently researched a company called College BellHop, which is a laundry service for college students. It aids students by picking up, dry-cleaning, washing, drying, folding and returning their laundry within two days. Schwartz and DiSilvio also plan to hire University students to pick up the laundry from dorms.
“I know a lot of people wait until they go home to do their laundry,” Schwartz said. “People have so much on their plate, they’re trying to graduate in four years, they don’t always have time to do laundry, so I figured it would be a great opportunity for Student Government to gain extra money for the clubs and organization.”
The service began at MIT and is very successful at other schools on the East Coast. It will cost a student $299 per semester and 7.5 percent of the profit earned will go toward SGA, where it will be used to help fund clubs, programs and organizations on campus.
“The Bellhop service represents a unique opportunity for SGA to benefit from a program two-fold. First by providing a desirable service for students and second by acquiring alternative revenue outside of student-paid University fees,” said Hunker.
DiSilvio plans on taking up the passed resolutions with the University Senate and ResLife to make sure that everything is legal and that the students get what they want.
“I am supposed to be the voice of 8,000 plus undergrads,” said DiSilvio. “So I basically say ‘Listen, the people you are here for want this,’ and they’ll do [it] hopefully.”