Parking issues and pricey laundry loads were discussed at the Student Government Association's holiday Town Hall meeting on Monday in the University Center.
The SGA set up the Faculty Lounge with festive free food, holiday-decorated tables and open doors. The forum of the meeting was a town hall structure.
"Town Hall is a low key, informal environment to interact with SGA," Mario Costa, SGA vice president, said.
According to Dolores Bujnowski, who helped organize the event, they wanted the setting to encourage students to approach SGA members and talk about any concerns they might have.
Students and SGA members began to arrive around 5:20 p.m., and by 6 p.m. people were overflowing into the lobby. Free Christmas treats were offered to all attendees including a cupcake decorating station and a chocolate fondue fountain.
Students used the welcoming atmosphere to see what the association is doing for Seton Hall, and maybe how they could get involved in the future, too.
"I think I'll get involved eventually, and this is the first step," freshman Amanda Speed said.
As the meeting continued, SGA President Joe Donato addressed the students who attended. He then passed it on to the other executive board members and senators to introduce themselves and briefly talk about what they were working on. Representatives and other members also had the chance to introduce themselves as well and state their agendas.
Sophomore ROTC Sen. Brenton Warn found many students who were willing to approach him with questions.
"I've been hearing a lot about residence life concerns," Warn said.
Many non-SGA members attended at the event.
"We would love to have more people come out to our meetings and have our meetings be like this every week," Warn said.
Before a more formal Q-and-A, a guest speaker from Parking Services, manager Anne Szipszky, came to address any concerns from students. An issue that was addressed was parking availability on campus. According to Szipszky, Parking Services is currently trying to "conserve" parking and "use the spaces we have wisely," but said they were open to any suggestions.
During the Q-and-A students brought up concerns with Community Development getting involved on off-campus situations.
Other questions included the problem of pricey laundry loads, especially for residents where the cost of a few loads every week or so might start to add up. SGA took the problem into consideration and laundry is an issue they are already working on, they said.
The session broke up into a more relaxed situation where students could interact with SGA members for the rest of the meeting while enjoying holiday music and food.
"I think this has been a big success," Bujnowski said.
SGA meetings are every other Monday at 5:30 p.m. in the Chancellor Suite. Students are welcome to come to see what SGA is up to or to discuss any concerns they might have.
Mary Marshall can be reached at mary.marshall@student.shu.edu.
