Student Senate Speaker Evan Bergeron resigned Wednesday night during an almost six-hour long Senate meeting, responding to criticism concerning his use of an SG funded Blackberry phone.
“I was hoping we could move past the petty things but I see I was wrong, ” Bergeron said. “There are people in here that have the wrong agendas, and I think my time in SG has elapsed.”
Following Bergeron’s resignation, Speaker Pro-tempore Ashley Martin was elected the new Senate Speaker and Graduate Senator Neal Hebert elected the new Speaker Pro-tempore. Three people were nominated for the Speaker Pro-tempore position, and Martin ran unopposed. Bergeron’s resignation comes after accusations that he had used a Blackberry issued to him for calls and text messages not covered under SG’s contract with Cingular. He is the second member to resign from SG because of accusations about Blackberry use.
In July, Crawford Leavoy, former SG executive staff member, resigned after similar accusations were made.
Some members said they think the resignation is a sign of positive movement within the organization.
“I hope that with this the Senate will be able to move forward and get back to our entire purpose: serving the students as their advocates,” Hebert said.
Another member who publicly called for Bergeron’s resignation agreed with Hebert.
“I’m glad he finally did the right thing because I don’t think the Student Senate needed to be put through the debate of recalling him because we have more important things to discuss,” Donald Hodge, graduate student senator said.
Members also discussed the proposal of the Freshman Residency Requirement and ultimately voted against it. Administrative representatives from Residential Life, Admissions, Dining, the Office of Student Life and Contracted and Auxiliary Services and faculty members asked the Senate to support the initiative.
The final decision of the plan, which would require all full-time, first year, unmarried students under the age of 21 to live on campus, ultimately lies in the hands of Chancellor Sean O’Keefe. The decision by O’Keefe to implement the residency requirement, which would not go into effect until fall 2008, will include the input of not only the Student Senate but also several other campus entities including the Residence Hall Association which endorsed the program and the Faculty Senate which will consider the measure today.
After debating the issue for about three hours, senators voted 9 to 33 against the proposed requirement.
Deborah Schulze, Residential Life director, said a list of exemptions would apply for certain students.
Senate members voiced concerns about the exemption policy and student financial aid.
She said students who live with a parent or guardian within 25 miles of the University’s campus, students with certain medical problem and married students would not be required to live on campus.
The University eliminated a previous requirement of freshman residency in 1979 mostly because of a lack of air conditioning in on-campus housing facilities, but with that issue addressed, administrators are pushing for the residency requirement.
Administrators in favor of the residency requirement gave presentations.
Robert Rohli, director of faculty residential life involvement, presented statistics provided by the Office of Budgeting and Planning, to explain why students should live on campus their first year.
Rohli said the GPA’s of students in 2004 who lived on campus was 2.83 compared to 2.69 of off-campus first year students.
Rohli also said there was a 10 percent increase in graduates in 4 years or less of students who lived on campus their freshman year.
“The first year is absolutely critical,” said Neil Matthews, Vice Chancellor of Student Life. “The overall goal of the residency requirement is to improve the quality of the undergraduate flagship experience for students.” Schulze said many other colleges have the requirement, such as the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Georgia. But while many administrators spoke in favor of the proposal, many student senate members spoke against it, saying most of their constituents they’ve spoken to are against the requirement.
“Forcing a bunch of people to live together might not be what we want to do in our commitment to this University and our Flagship Agenda,” Hebert said.
Senate members were concerned about how parking and construction delays will affect the proposed increase in students living on campus.
Senate members also asked administrators what their plans were to help students financially burdened by the requirement. “There would be a mechanism in place for those students,” Schulze said. “There is a provision in the exemption to students with financial need so they can live off-campus if the need be.”
Dustin Talbot, director of public relations, said after talking with Student Government members of universities who most recently applied the residency requirement, he found “their students fought it at first, but just like as promised the rates have gone up.”
The Senate also voted to appoint student Jessica Perez as Director of Public Service.