NEWS

Senate hears report on new Marriott contract

by Margo Lipschultz

With the College's Long Range Planning (LRP) effort well into its second year and the recent formulation of many committees to plan for renovations of various aspects of the College, student senators have much to discuss at their Sunday meetings.

Included on Senate's agenda this week was a discussion regarding dining and residential hall renovations with Assistant Director of Residential Life and Services Michele Gross and Housing and Dining Manager Sandy Hougland.

Gross distributed a tentative 10-year facility upgrade timeline which highlighted goals for complete and partial renovations of many dorms and co-ops across campus. The list accounts for projects through the year 2007, at which time South Hall is scheduled to be revamped.

First on the list is Harkness Hall, which will be completely revamped next summer. Mechanics will be upgraded and the furniture replaced.

As part of the renovations, Harkness residents' One-Card validines will be programmed to lock and unlock their doors when a student's 4-digit PIN access code is punched in, according to Gross.

This way, she told senators, instead of a $15 key replacement fee and a $35 lock-changing fee students must pay if they lose their key, their access codes can simply be changed.

Residential Life and Services' Student Room Access System proposal reported that, "During the 1996/97 academic year a total of 416 lock changes were performed by our office at a total cost of $14,650."

The new access system will also be put to the test in Fairchild Hall.

Although as of last year Residential Life and Services staff members were discussing renovating Barrows Hall in the summer of '98, they have now postponed that until construction of the new Science Center begins. To make room for the Science Center, the South wing of Barrows will be torn down. Subsequent interior renovations to the rest of the dorm will be made at that time.

Gross announced that Marriott's contract with Campus Dining Services (CDS), which ended this year, has been renewed for another year. She also discussed proposed renovations to Dascomb Dining Hall and the Wilder Snackbar, adding that nothing would be finalized until student input was given.

"The ResLife department is really doing a massive outreach on that," senator senior Dan Persky said. "They're putting blueprints up, and setting up a comments sheet on their website."

Senators announced their intention to begin a Housing and Dining Advisory Council, which met for the first time Thursday.

Student Life Committee (SLC) member sophomore Sarah Fineberg came to the Senate meeting to discuss SLC's Overnight Guest Policy Revision. The revised policy, which Senate passed, stated that College residents are only allowed student or non-student overnight guests if roommates and hall residents are not inconvenienced.

Senators also discussed the series of proposals to benefit off-campus students authored by senator senior Chapin Benninghoff. "The time has come to welcome back these members of the community and offer them the benefits and support they deserve," Benninghoff wrote in the mission statement of his proposal.

The proposals highlighted such concerns as computing facilities, since off-campus students have less access to the Internet than on-campus students who can ask their Resident Computing Consultants (RCC's) to network their computers for them.

Senators also reviewed Benninghoff's two separate Off-Campus Area Coordinator proposals. One called for the Student Life department to create a student position to oversee an enumerated list of off-campus concerns, while the other focused on "providing personnel and facilities to supporting off-campus students as members of the overall residential community," according to the proposal.

Senators also reviewed Benninghoff's Junior Housing Exemption Proposal, which specifies that all students who have lived on campus for four semesters should be allowed to live off-campus. This would eliminate the financial burden on students who lease off-campus housing but are not exempted by the College.

Benninghoff's last off-campus proposal concerned housing acquisition, and stated that its purpose is "to provide for an extension of our current housing plan that balances respect for the ideal of the residential college and recognition of student preference in the context of limited financial means."

The proposals were passed unanimously by Senate. Senators adjourned with the reminder that their open meeting Sunday is scheduled for 8 p.m.

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Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 126, Number 10, November 21, 1997

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