The Student Government Association held a meeting Oct. 13 to hear Dean of Students and SGA Adviser Mark Miller’s special report following the break-in at Hardin Hall, along with two new resolutions regarding funding for Chemistry Club’s Thirsty Thursday and bylaw revisions.
Miller first addressed Centenary’s camera systems. Centenary has over 200 cameras, but the camera system is currently full and adding more in certain areas could overload them.
Another concern with adding more cameras is taking away from student privacy. Privacy and safety seem to conflict with each other, raising the question of whether taking away that privacy is worth preventing potential future crimes on campus.
“The pendulum seems to swing back and forth,” said Miller.
Many SGA members had concerns about the prevention of non-residents from accessing locking mechanisms outside residence halls. To prevent the locks from being accessed with tools, a plate was temporarily put on the doors until a fix could be made. It is expected that the Hardin Hall door will be replaced in four to six weeks.
Miller also explained the roles of resident advisors and DPS in securing campus. RAs are responsible for doing door checks every night, including tugging on exterior doors to ensure that they are locked. DPS also routinely circles around campus, spending most of their time out of the office. There are always two DPS officers patrolling and one in surrounding areas. When DPS falls short of an officer, they backfill with the Shreveport Police Department.
SGA members were also advised to encourage students to stop propping open doors. Over half of the doors propped have been at Bicentennial Village, and prop alarms will soon be installed. While these prop alarms may keep campus safer, they also most affect those whose rooms are closest to doors. This may cause them to be woken up in the middle of the night and have to address doors left open by others.
Miller asked that students keep the maintenance request form saved on their phones to ensure broken doors, locks, or windows can be properly fixed to keep buildings secure. Without proper notification, maintenance staff will not be able to fix these issues.
Another common issue is students letting strangers into the residence halls behind them. Miller asked students to be aware of any non-students on campus, and to call DPS to check them out before ever providing any assistance. DPS can do background checks for any dangerous records.
SGA then discussed two items of new business, first involving Resolution2627_07: Chemistry Club Thirsty Thursday. This resolution involved an approval of funding of $78.30 for Chemistry Club’s Thirsty Thursday event which will take place Oct. 22 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. SGA members voted unanimously in favor of passing this resolution.
The second resolution was Resolution2627_08: Bylaw Revisions. These revisions would specify how to correctly notify the VP of PR of an absence and how attendance strikes can be appealed. This also proposed the plain-language summary, a short breakdown under each bylaw. Since bylaws take precedent, the summary would be updated along with any bylaw changes. An amendment was made to these revisions to place VP of finance before VP of campus involvement. After this change was made, SGA members once again voted unanimously in favor of the revisions.