Miami University Associated Student Government (ASG) Student Senate unanimously passed the Advising Act of 2012 Tuesday.
This bill, which seeks to renovate academic advising throughout the university, was discussed during the last ASG meeting March 13.
One of the facets of the Advising Act is a "What if" degree audit report (DARS), which allows students to see the courses they would take if they were to change their major or minor.
Other facets of the bill include mandatory meetings with an advisor for first-years and sophomores, a more centralized advising system and the creation of a general bulletin for post-secondary enrollment students who are completing university requirements before becoming full-time students at Miami.
Senators Cole Tyman, Maggie Reinhart and Conor Nelson all supported the act.
"I think this is an obvious problem that we've seen time and time again," Tyman said.
Reinhart agreed.
"I think this bill is completely necessary and it has been well thought out for a long time," Reinhart said.
Nelson said the act would help increase graduation and retention rates.
"This is only going to help us with our graduation rates, getting students out of here in four years with a degree," Nelson said. "It's going to help with retention rates."
Now that the Advising Act has been passed instead of being discussed by University Senate, it will go to Provost Bobby Gempesaw to be discussed by the AdHoc subcommittee.
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Senator Tyler Sinclair said that University Senate's agenda is too busy to discuss the act outside of a committee.
Matt Weber, ASG technology director, introduced a bill advocating for green-space wireless coverage, which IT Services would implement and would mean students would have access to internet outside of buildings.
In order to create this Internet access, networking hardware would have to be mounted on buildings or architectural fixtures such as telephone poles.
"I was sitting outside of Bell Tower today, a little bit closer to the actual tower and I couldn't connect to the wireless," Weber said.
Connecting to Miami's wireless outside becomes more difficult in the spring and fall when tree leaves can scatter the signal according to Weber.
Student fees for technology would not go up as the result of this project, Weber said
Senators were concerned implementing green-space wireless coverage would take out too much of IT Services' budget.
Weber said he did not think this would be the case.
"I am sure that IT would not have asked if we wanted to do this if they didn't think they could fund it," Weber said.
The senators moved to discuss this bill more at ASG's next meeting.
President Pro-Tempore Brandon Patterson and Sectary for Diversity Affairs Jonathan Wheeler made a presentation asking ASG members help starting a new organization called Student Group On Race Relations (SGORR).
SGORR was created at Shaker Heights High School in 1982 to educate 4th and 6th grade students about appropriate human relations.
Patterson and Wheeler would like to create a SGORR chapter at Miami. Members of this chapter would go into 4th and 6th grade classrooms at schools in Talawanda and Trenton districts.
Patterson encouraged senators to talk to their constituents and do research.
"With the help of ASG I know we can achieve, make it happen and make a difference in our community," Patterson said.
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