UHR hears updates on student center improvements
By Dale Russell / STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Nick Lalwani addresses UHR at a recent meeting. Quorum is obtained when at least 2/3 of the representatives are present, as shown.
While waiting for quorum, the Undergraduate House of Representatives were given an update on the Student Center improvements. These improvements include food court renovations, STA travel center, and the vendor policy.
The three phases of the food court renovations are the Greenhouse, which will happen in December of this year, the main dining room, scheduled to take place in May of next year, and the food court, set to take place next year.
The goals of the renovations are to improve aesthetics and modernization, create late-night study space, open traffic flow, and create two event spaces in the greenhouse.
The STA travel center, which will be opening this month, will be located in the Bookstore Mall beside the Buzz Card Center. It will focus on student travel, such as break trips, international travel, and study abroad. Using STA would allow students to purchase airfare at about 50% below the lowest advertised fares.
Everyone has seen vendors in the student center giving away free items, such as t-shirts and hats, in exchange for signing up for a credit card. This results in some students having too many credit cards because they wanted the giveaways.
A new policy in progress would give only one company the rights to distribute two types of credit cards. This monopoly, they are hoping, will cut down on student credit problems, and even have positive financial effects for Georgia Tech.
A policy that was recently established has already created a "No Conditional Give-Aways Policy", which enforces that companies must not make students sign up for, or buy, anything in order to get any free merchandise they happen to be giving out.
Old business included a bill for the Georgia Tech Ultimate Club, to which the Council allocated $3100 for travel and tournament fees.
Also, a bill was passed to grant the money to order 1400 Team Buzz T-shirts for the students participating in this year's community service event. The design for this year's T-shirt can be viewed on page A12 of last week's Technique.
TEAM Buzz Day will take place this year on Oct. 23 this year. Volunteers work in soup kitchens and food banks, plant trees, clean up neighborhoods, and much more all around the Atlanta community.
