The DePauw Student Government Senate met Sunday and introduced new initiatives, including improving the often groaned-about course registration system.
The Course Registration System Committee, created by student government, spoke with Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Ken Kirkpatrick to determine an ideal prototype.
The new proposed system would include time slots for choosing classes, straightforward waiting lists, enrollment priority for students with relevant majors, professor overview of students' class needs and an overall speedier process.
Because the program is still in conceptual stages, speculations on how to execute all of these factors have been arranged into questions to determine semantics.
The other initiative that was discussed was the possible creation of a campus-wide Solo Cup Brigade to reduce waste on campus. The Solo Cup Brigade is a national recycling program meant to properly recycle the frequently-used cups on college campuses across the U.S.
Solo Cup has paired up with TerraCycle, a company that specializes in collecting non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste and converting it a variety of products and materials. The Solo Cup Brigade would allow students to collect recyclables, turn them into TerraCycle and send the proceeds to a charity of the student's choice. Greek Houses especially would be targeted for recycling productivity.
In addition to this, the Sustainability Committee discussed an initiative that would compile a report on DePauw's summer watering methods, keep track of student suggestions and bring major flaws in the watering system to the administration's attention.
Senators working on Kaplan Prep Courses talked to administrative staff about the possibility of starting an on-campus Kaplan Prep program. Collaboratively they are looking at costs, potential contacts, research and options for executing the program. Planning has been narrowed to several options, and the eventual choice will be determined by price, availability of teachers, general attainability and research.
Apart from proposals, the Senate also incorporated five new first-year members.
All senators were reintroduced, followed by an integration of freshmen senators Adam May, Colleen Whiting, Ciera Decourcy, Laurel Johnson and Deanna Reder into the chamber.
Important events that the senators highlighted for this week include Union Board meetings open to all students each Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in U.B. 231/232. Union Board sponsors an array of on-campus gatherings at DePauw, including a past laser tag event and last week's highlighter party.
This year's School of Music event DePauwPalooza will kick off in Bowman Park at 5 p.m. on Friday. The event will feature a variety of student performances and entertainment and will continue the endeavor to unite DePauw's School of Music with the College of Liberal Arts.