By Alice Horner
Editor-in-Chief
It was president versus senate for the first time this past Tuesday night. President Mitchell Reiss made his first appearance at the weekly Senate meeting in Goldstein 100, and outlined his top six worries about Washington College: cost of higher education, admissions, personnel issues, the waterfront campus, town-gown relations, and alumni participation rating.
After his presentation, several senators asked Reiss questions and voiced their own concerns for the school. Topics such as energy efficiency, the student-president relationship, and more education about the Washington Fund were raised.
“It was the first time he gave us his vision for the school, which is an appropriate time. It’s good to get a semester under his belt first,” said SGA President Andrew Antonio.
Also present was Donna Dhue-Wilkins, Director of Dining Services, who gave a presentation on the possibility of converting Coyote Jack’s to another type of food retail, and garnered student opinions about its possible replacement. She explained that a small campus such as WC can’t afford the royalty fees of national brands such as Chick-Fil-A, but other options were a salad bar, sushi, and tex-mex retail. Many seniors in the room voiced opinions that they missed the style of the Cove in the old Hodson Hall, where sandwiches were made to order and there was a small grocery section.
Secretary of Social Life senior Katie Johnson announced the act for the spring concert as Lil’ John and the Three 6 Mafia. Johnson explained that the concert will take place on the night of War on the Shore, and that attendees will need to be over 18 or have a valid college ID.
“The artist came up a different way than previously expected,” said Antonio.
The top vote in the student election this past fall was singer Kid Cudi, but an unfortunate set of circumstances got in the way.
“Turns out he’s in rehab, so that didn’t work,” Antonio said.
Singer Ke$ha, who came in second place, turned down the school’s offer of $100,000, “which was twice our budget anyway,” he said.
Despite the unexpected turn of events, Antonio is satisfied with the outcome. “We realized students wanted hip-hop or rap, we ended up compromising and coming up with two well-known names, possibly three,” he said..
Antonio, who was recently re-elected as SGA President, gave his own vision for the next school year. “My biggest thing for the year is highlighting our effort to go green,” he said. “This is a big school for studying environmental science, and the environment is a big part of our life here, and we’re kind of behind the trend.” A new Secretary of the Environment position has been created for the 2010-2011 year to help organize student efforts and connect the campus community in the green movement.
Antonio wants to make sure that when his term is over, he leaves WC with a Student Government that will be ready to hit the ground running come next fall. “Building a sustainable organization is important to me, and I want to make sure the SGA is sustainable. I don’t want everyone to come into SGA completely lost,” he said.
March 25, 2011
Volume LXXXI Issue 19