With student body government elections just around the corner, last week’s Student Senate meeting was an exercise in brevity. To accommodate for special guests’ schedules, and because the usually time-consuming matter of special allocations was removed from this week’s agenda, committee reports proceeded swiftly and with great focus.

Senator James Auwaerter spoke on behalf of the Business Affairs committee and their continued efforts to disseminate University information around campus. In particular, he focused on promoting awareness of the most recent Carnegie Mellon master plan, so that members of the campus community can “see what [the University] is supposed to look like in two years, how beautiful it would be in our dreams.”

Senator Daniel Papasian briefly questioned the likelihood of the plan’s feasibility, but Senator Erik Michaels-Ober was quick to defend Carnegie Mellon’s track record with their master plans. He cited the University’s 1988 plan, in which they fulfilled “100 percent” of their goals.

Senator Rebecca Nathan reported on an eventful week for the Campus Life committee. She centered her discussion on the campus postering policy; in response to “particularly offensive” violations of the policy by an off-campus agency, Nathan’s committee is looking into making enforcement more stringent. Additionally, she mentioned restructuring the policy itself so that all posters must include either the date on which they were posted or the date of the event they advertise.

The Communications committee, headed by Senator and Student Body Presidential candidate Erik Michaels-Ober, has been working on promoting the upcoming student government elections.

“We have some show-and-tell this week,” said Michaels-Ober, as he displayed the tri-fold, tabletop signs that will appear around campus this week to promote elections. He extended “mad props” to Senator Papasian for helping to fold the signage, which features Andrew Carnegie as Uncle Sam and implores all students to vote this Tuesday and Wednesday.

Michaels-Ober was enthusiastic about this year’s nominees. He reported that 12 students from the college of humanities and social sciences are vying for seven seats, and even the chronically underrepresented college of fine arts has six students running for their apportioned seven seats.

In light of the dwindling school year, Senator and Funding and Recognition Chair Megan Flocken closed this week’s meeting to the usual requests for special allocations and recognition. Her committee will wait to distribute funds until more student organizations have submitted requests for end-of-the-year events.

Flocken also referred to a “slight question” regarding the exact amount of funds still left for dispersion.

“These numbers are vague, and they change,” said Flocken, concerning the figures that were partially skewed by confusion surrounding the cost of a Labor Day picnic earlier this year. She anticipates, however, that the information will be cleared up by Monday.

Russell Borum, chair of the Student Body Dining Committee, spoke of extensive gains by the committee to increase student satisfaction by revamping the current meal plans. Among other proposed changes, Borum discussed the possibilities of listing all block meals on one centralized website, requiring campus food vendors to post nutritional information, enhancing dining areas to create a more communal feel, reinstating a cafeteria, and embarking on a “detailed review” of all food vendors. Borum sought feedback from fellow senators and special guest Michael Murphy, Dean of Student Affairs. Borum also insured that he will fully consider all comments and investigate all options before making final recommendations for new meal plans in the fall.

Perhaps the most salient discussion of the evening concerned the forthcoming student body government elections. Senator Vito Fiore referred to his time left as Senate Chair as “the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end, or however you want to look at it,” and encouraged all senators to “tell all your friends, get out there and vote.”

4/5/04 Correction: The original text of Senator Michaels-Ober's discussion stated that three candidates from CFA are running for four positions. This is, however, the case in the School of Computer Science. Six candidates are running for seven positions for CFA.