Student government created an idea board for a place where students could fill out a form to express their concerns and ideas for student programs that they feel are necessary.

“We encourage students to not only fill out the forms but also voice their opinions in person at the meetings,” Zach Samples said, a student senate member.

There are many ideas currently on the board that students have posted.

“I think the ideas that I liked the most are those relating to community service opportunities because it is the easiest for student government to build off of,” Alex Boyd said, a student senate member.

The student government does community service activities such as a dumpster dive and a trash pick up.

One of the ideas addressed on the board is to have a LBGT Resource Center.

“I definitely think that the LBGT Resource Center would be a more important idea. I heard that they have almost no support from the university, and I feel that they have a right to have more involvement in the school,” Brittany Prysock said, a senior therapeutic recreation major.

Krista Stephens, a sophomore psychology major, also spoke about the idea.

“I know that (the university) has a week for LBGT, but it would be better if they had more than that on campus,” Stephens said.

Samples mentioned how it could be expanded into an online research center where someone would be able to get information on issues affecting LBGT, and student government could help with it through the diversity committee.

Another idea that was present on the board was promoting sporting events more and getting more students involved.

“Helping to promote sporting events is definitely something we can tackle, but I also think we should focus on promoting other events that are held through UB and Dounda,” Samples said.

There were also ideas that some students did not think were as important compared to others such as repaving the sidewalks on campus.

“I think it would be more of a spender than a benefit, our sidewalks are not that bad,” Stephens said.

Prysock agreed.

“I don’t see any real problems with the sidewalks, there is already so much construction going on that I don’t think that is very important right now,” Prysock said.

There were also ideas that are not in the jurisdiction of the student government on the wall, one of which being extending the hours of the eateries at the Food Court in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

“For Chic-Fillet, it is their corporate policy to be closed on Sundays which we have no say in,” Samples said.

Another pertaining issue is how students would like to have more parking available to them.

“With the parking situation, I full heartedly agree and there is talk of building a new parking lot but changes wouldn’t happen until most of us (senators) were graduated from Eastern,” Boyd said.

Student idea forms are available in the Student Activities Center in the union for any and all students wanting to express their opinions and concerns to the student government.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-7942 or rjrodgers@eiu.edu.

External Relations Chair Tommy Nierman talks with other Student Government members near a board designed to get students’ input on what Student Government should focus on. (Jordan Boner

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