The IU Student Association Congress passed three resolutions that elected new representatives, requested better warnings at railroad crossings and requested clearer sidewalks on 10th Street, respectively.
IUSA Congress met in Hodge Hall Tuesday for their second assembly session of the semester.
Nate North, Teter representative, and Matt Cabo, Read representative, along with Craig Douglas, off-campus representative and the Student Life Committee sponsored a resolution to enhance safety at campus railroad crossings.
This resolution requests flashing lights or sounds to be placed at railroad crossings to increase the safety of students, faculty and others on campus.
After a personal incident with a dangerous railroad crossing, North decided to bring this issue to Congress.
About 20 seconds after driving over a set of railroad tracks, North noticed that a train passed shortly after he crossed.
Currently, railroad crossings near the Student Recreational Sports Center, Hodge Hall and North Walnut Grove are only marked by a sign.
One of the reasons the resolution’s sponsors brought this bill to Congress was because of a train and car collision that happened last year. In April of last year, a train collided with a car at the tracks on Union Street.
Although this resolution is a request to research this issue and attempt to find a solution, Douglas said some sort of warning system needs to be in place to increase the safety of both pedestrians and drivers.
Douglas, along with North and Cabo, sponsored another resolution supporting the clearing of sidewalks on 10th Street.
Overgrown bushes obstruct the sidewalk along the Geology and Psychology buildings, according to the bill.
This resolution formally requests that the University use its ground-keeping personnel to trim these bushes to reveal the entire sidewalk or to look into other ways to fix this problem.
The sidewalk should allow about four people to pass, but because of the bushes, only about two are able to walk, Douglas said.
Douglas said this resolution is simply a request for the University to try and find some way to fix it.
“It’s very easy to do, and it’s very annoying,” Douglas said.
Both of these resolutions are requests to look further into these issues, and there is no set plan for implementing them. However, IUSA Congress adviser Steve Browne said his job is to help a bill’s sponsor work to come up with that plan.
It isn’t necessary for sponsors to have a full plan of how to tackle the issue when they first present it to Congress, Browne said. They should just have a loose plan with which Browne can work to fully develop and implement with them.
North said both his and Douglas’ bills won’t be too hard to implement.
“Both of these resolutions aren’t demanding, and they have a positive impact on campus,” Douglas said.
