Students who have ever found frustration with the product difference of the University’s Outtakes and Take 5 convenience stores may be in luck thanks to a new resolution proposed by a University College Center for Freshman Year senator.
Austin Grashoff, a freshman UCFY senator, proposed a new resolution on Wednesday night to the SG Student Senate that passed to urge Dining Services to regulate the products in both convenience stores so products sold in both stores matched.
“When I first started working on this resolution, it stemmed from getting Outtakes and Take 5 open on Saturdays during game days because I know that a lot of students, during the day, need something to eat or drink, and there’s really nowhere else on campus but right by [their] dorm,” Grashoff said.
The resolution to get Outtakes and Take 5 open on Saturdays was passed by Student Senate during football season.
During that same time, Grashoff noted he frequented Take 5 because he was a resident of Cypress Hall. He found that products he was looking for were not available in Take 5 but were available in Outtakes, forcing him to walk across campus or go off-campus to the CVS on Highland Road.
“Knowing that Outtakes and Take 5 are open past midnight, campus does get very dangerous at those times,” Grashoff said. “That’s why [LSUPD] are always on patrol and always in their cars with the lights on because they know that people walking across campus can get injured easily or attacked.”
In an effort to reduce that risk, Grashoff’s bill aims to regulate the products in both convenience stores to alleviate the need for students to travel across campus for certain products.
Grashoff notes that he would’ve liked the bill to be more specific, referencing certain products as example like Advil or Band-Aids, but as he doesn’t have access to the product list, he satisfies this by using general terms like “medicinal” and “toiletries.”
“I don’t have access to what they buy or what they stock. I have only seen what they put out,” Grashoff said.
The bill also focuses more on the medicinal and toiletry-related items the stores carry, as opposed to the food items, Grashoff said.
Grashoff worked with assistant vice president of Auxiliary Services Margot Carroll to develop the resolution in his Student Senate committee, Student Auxiliary Services.
“I would like for [students] to be more vocal and reach out to their senators,” Grashoff said. “Whether it’s UCFY, [Center for Advising and Counseling], whatever it is … especially for UCFY, because there are a lot of issues with freshman that [they] don’t know what’s going on and whatever makes … LSU better for them is my goal. If they could reach out, maybe come to a Senate meeting or stop by the Senate office … that would be super helpful.”