The Student Association (SA) Senate met this past Monday and discussed a range of issues such as Spring Fest 2008, hosting a presidential debate and unisex bathrooms for transgender students.
The entire Spring Fest lineup has not been finalized, according to SA President Peter Grollitsch. But he did say that two of the artists that have been contacted are on the list of top 10 bands on MySpace.com.
Grollitsch confirmed that Styles of Beyond, an innovative underground hip-hop group from California, were signed and will perform at Spring Fest.
Styles of Beyond performed on Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour last summer with bands such as Taking Back Sunday, according to their Web site. Several SA members compared the band to the more mainstream group, The Roots, who performed at last year's Spring Fest.
Speculation about possible performers has been circulating through the school for several weeks. Shaun Puro, a junior biomedical science major, has already heard several rumors, but they didn't stop him from expressing his personal preferences for the festival.
"I would love to see Say Anything and Third Eye Blind," Puro said.
Other students prefer hip-hop acts.
"I didn't go to Fall Fest because I wasn't interested," said David Vogt, a sophomore psychology and communication major. Vogt was more optimistic about Spring Fest and will "probably" attend.
Spring Fest and Fall Fest are annual music festivals that are organized by the SA and paid for by student mandatory activity fees.
The Senate also discussed possibly hosting a presidential debate at UB, similar to the one that was recently held at the University of Texas.
"It would be good to bring some notoriety to the school," Grollitsch said.
SA faced a multitude of issues with this task, however, and ultimately decided against it. The debate would have to be scheduled two and half years in advance and would require the school to front large amounts of money. SA would also have to make sure to get candidates from both sides of the political spectrum since they have recently been criticized for hosting a speaker series that many see as skewed towards the left.
"It's not going to happen any time soon," Grollitsch said about the debate.
The Senate also discussed a possible mandate to have professors choose books for their classes by April 30. Currently, professors are able to contact the bookstores with their choices much later into the summer, which often results in book bundling.
SA mentioned that this harms students because they must wait longer to sell back books and end up paying more.
The Senate went on to continue the ongoing discussion of a deal with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). For some time, the SA has been trying to work out a deal with NFTA that would allow students to travel on the metro system, which includes the city buses and subway, for a reduced rate. The plans, however, seem to have largely fallen through.
"Nothing is going to happen with that in the near future," Grollitsch said. "We're at two different places in the road and we're not meeting anywhere."
The Senate believes that only between 10 to 30 percent of students would take advantage of the NFTA deal, so it would not be worth the high cost.
The possibility of opening up unisex bathrooms for hermaphroditic students was also brought to the table.
"[It will] make people feel more comfortable," said Jessica Garcia, a senate member.
Currently, these students have to choose which gender bathroom to go in, and are often stared at by other students in the bathrooms, according to members of the Senate.
Members brought up the possibility of hosting an event as a Senate rather than as individual clubs.
"I feel like the Senate never does anything as a whole," Garcia said.
SA left this idea open-ended, deciding that the event should raise awareness for SA and the Senate.
They will vote on a new speaker of assembly on Thursday.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
