A look at the current IUSA administration

IU Student Association tickets create platforms promising things they will try to accomplish throughout the year. Last year, the current IUSA administration listed five things. Below is a listing of Big Red’s five platform initiatives and how well the administration met each goal.

Weekend Health Center Hours

Currently, health center weekend hours have not been put into place because the administration decided it would be unwise to raise student fees in the current economic environment. Weekday health center hours cost less than weekend hours.

“We were hesitant to propose any large fee increases this year,” IUSA President Luke Fields said. “We know that the burdens of coming into a college environment are only increasing.”

The Big Red administration has been working with health center workers to see if minimizing hours on certain weekdays and creating partial weekend hours would be feasible.

Tax-Free Textbooks

A bill that supports a tax-free holiday went into the Indiana State Senate but failed to pass. State Sen. Vi Simpson wrote a bill that went to the state senate. The bill went to the committee but died because the state needed money to pay its deficit, Fields said. The bill received support from IU-Bloomington, its satellite campuses and other Indiana colleges supporting the initiative. IUSA also met with the president of the Indiana Retail Commission.

“For this year, the work is finished,” Fields said. “I think we did everything we could to the best of our ability so that we can hand off the baton to next year’s group in April.”

Student Section

IUSA did not acquire a traditional student section. Members of the administration said this is because of low student turnout at basketball games. But the administration said they made positive strides.

“Despite the decrease in student tickets, we were able to maintain that no student seats were lost in Assembly Hall – despite the fact that basketball could have made additional money from alumni,” said current Vice President Dan Sloat.

None of the 7,500 student seats were lost, Fields said. The student prices will remain low for basketball tickets, Fields said. Through their time in office, Big Red was able to develop a good relationship with the new Director of Athletics Fred Glass and basketball coach Tom Crean to inform them that students are interested in this initiative, Fields said. Big Red will be meeting with Glass sometime soon to open the lines of communication for a student section.

Meal Point Rollover

All meal points remaining at the end of the school year will now roll over to the following semester. For those students who purchased a meal plan for the next school year, leftover meal points can be used for the following two semesters. This was a big victory for the Big Red administration, Fields said.

Fall Break

IUSA did not create a fall break this year. Fields said the administration has worked with the campus calendar committee to try to make adjustments with the schedule. Fields said it is a complicated process that both the faculty and board of trustees must approve. Congress has advocated that students get the entire week off at Thanksgiving break and begin school earlier. The current IUSA administration has gotten the resolution together and is working with each dean to see if this new schedule is plausible, Fields said.