This week, several visitors sat in at the USG General Body Meeting. These visitors attended this meeting in order to discuss the problems which many students are experiencing regarding the continued closure of the DHH dining hall. The DHH dining hall has been closed since the beginning of the Spring 2022 semester due to staffing issues. Students were promised expanded options at the two remaining dining halls in order to make up for this loss. Eva Thomason, first year DHH resident, recently sent out a forum to other residing students concerning this issue. She received 160 responses from a wide variety of residing students, some of whom raised the issue of being unable to travel to other residential halls, causing them to skip meals. Ms. Thomason summarized these responses into four suggestions which she then brought to both Daryl Matthews, the Director of Dining Services, and Dr. Southerland, the Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students. These suggestions were to offer a bagged lunch option, a three hour-long continental breakfast option, an alternative continental breakfast option (such as fresh fruit or bakery), or to reimburse students, potentially accessible by HuskyCard, for the meals which they are currently missing. Dr. Southerland “want[ed] to publicly acknowledge the professionalism Ms. Thomason displayed advocating for her fellow students.”
Recently on Discord, there was some discussion about a possible breakdown in communication between USG and the Senate regarding the upcoming changes to how student survey responses for faculty evaluations are managed. This issue was brought to the attention of the body, and President Zachary Olson explained that while USG had sent memos regarding their stance and related decisions to the Senate President and Secretary, these memos were not dispersed to the Senate at large.
USG will be introducing their updated Fall Break resolution at next week’s meeting. This resolution now includes more statistics and information which supports the plan to institute a Fall Break at MTU.
Students are encouraged to keep an eye on their inbox next week for USG election advertising.
If you have any questions or concerns for USG please email USG President Zachary Olsen at usg-president@mtu.edu or fill out the form on their website.
