IUSA pushes forward campus initiatives

During the March IU Student Association election, the winning iUnity ticket ran on a platform of five initiatives.

Senior and IUSA Vice President for Administration Peter SerVaas said the initiatives often take time to complete and should be seen as goals the administration will work diligently to finish throughout the semester.

“Initiatives are initiatives. They aren’t promises, and they aren’t things that are going to be done tomorrow,” SerVaas said.

He also said the administration will work as hard as possible to ensure progress is made.

Junior and Chief of Staff  Neil Kelty said the administration has seen success largely due to a restructuring of IUSA’s administration. The organization’s staff has nearly doubled since iUnity took office, and he is demanding more work from that larger staff.

“Better accountability helps keep other people in check,” Kelty said.

Here’s an update on IUSA’s initiative progress.

FALL BREAK
This initiative has been an issue of contention for at least three IUSA election cycles. However, this administration has made strides in developing a proposal that went before the Calendar Committee and was endorsed by IUSA Congress at its meeting Sept. 7. The proposal calls for a school year that begins one week earlier. Students would get one Friday off in October for fall break. Additionally, there would be no classes on Labor Day and Thanksgiving break would be extended to nine days. The proposal will be heard by the Bloomington
Faculty Council Tuesday.

BIKE RENTAL
The initiative has been on IUSA’s platform since SerVaas’ Btown administration took office in 2009. SerVaas said the bike program is still in the works. Recent developments include a structured cost-model and plans to partner with campus groups to build components of the project. If it is put into place, the bike program will be billable to students’ bursar accounts. It would also allow checkout with a student ID.  

SUSTAINABILITY
iUnity’s campaign platform contained a “signature campaign” to add the Sustainability & Green Initiative Fund to the list of add-on donations available during course registration. That addition will require 10,000 student signatures on a petition. Kelty said the iUnity administration is in the midst of

developing a program that will allow signatures to be collected online, something he said would make their goal more achievable. Kelty said he hopes to have the fund in place by the end of the fall semester.

CAMPUS SAFETY
In the wake of traffic-related accidents, iUnity pledged to improve pedestrian safety. IUSA contributed to the report submitted by the Campus Traffic Safety Task Force.

The task force was created by Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson on Sept. 18, 2009, and it added a crosswalk on 10th Street between the Herman B Wells Library and School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Kelty said they want to remain flexible in their plans as they move forward but will look toward improving pedestrian safety on North Jordan Avenue.

“Something needs to be done up on that area of campus,” Kelty said.

TRANSPORTATION
iUnity, Kelty said, has deemed their transportation initiative a success. The launch of an IUmobile feature allows students to track en route campus buses in real time and meets one of iUnity platform goals. The next phase of the plan involves installing the application on large screens displayed in heavily-trafficked student areas.

Sophomore Victoire Iradukunda uses the application on her iPhone and said she thinks the application is useful and only wishes it would have been available last year as well.

“Since I was a freshman, it would have been a great help,” she said.