A heavy agenda bombarded the Student Government Association Senate Thursday night as three items of focus were thoroughly discussed.

UTM Vice Chancellor and Chair of Ceremonies Committee Tom Rakes informed Senate that a new graduation attendance policy would have to be administered this year as a result of the high number of graduating seniors this spring.

Rakes said that there are so many spring graduates this year that the possibility of an excessive amount of guests could serve as a potential risk. To insure that the fire marshal does not shut down the commencement activities in May, the Ceremonies Committee has initiated the distribution of free graduation attendance tickets.

“(UTM is) recognized throughout the region for having some of the best organized and most dignified commencement ceremonies of any of the universities,” said Rakes as he expected the new ticket process to not contain any problems.

After this commencement ceremony, UTM will review the process by asking people about their experiences with the process so that they can make improvements for next year.

The next topic on the SGA Senate agenda was the ad-hoc committee’s recommendation toward the combination/renovation of the food court and game room. The committee was chaired by Chris Cherry.

The survey concluded that the students strongly disagreed with the loss of the square footage and disagreed with the moving of J.W. Market.

Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Al Hooten was on hand to discuss the project.

The majority of the SGA Senate agreed with the ad-hoc committee’s recommendation and officially voted to not support the project. The third big item of business was the introduction of senate bills.

The first bill read was proposed by the Academic Affairs Committee. They introduced the creation of an Internship Coordinator position. Chair Rebecca Daily read that there is a growing need for a coordinator to help students find internships because several employers today are looking for applicants with on-the-job experience. They want to resolve this problem by recommending that the Department of Academic Affairs create a part-time or full-time Internship Coordinator position that would require a Bachelor’s degree, the creation and maintenance of an online-database of employers, as well as the implementation of two Internship Days each semester.

“I think that this is such a good idea because I just recently went to my advisor asking about internships in psychology and he had no idea (about any opportunities),” Sen. Bonike Akinsanya said. The SGA Senate passed this bill.

In other news: • Two additional bills were read at this meeting concerning the need for Legislative Council meetings and the continuation of Diversity Week each year. These bills have been tabled for two weeks and will be discussed further at the next meeting. • Shannon Burgin informed the SGA Senate that the computer lab in Humanities 118 will be moved to the UC. The 36 computers are suspected to be stationed in the lobby area of the 2nd floor. Humanities 118 will be converted into more classroom space. • Jeremy Johnson and Sergio Bustillo resigned from the Senate.

SGA in brief: The Senate passed a resolution in support of a university-wide internship coordinator position at Thursday’s meeting, and also voted not to support university plans to renovate the first floor of the UC.

Proposed action: Merge the game room and the food court into one general area, making the game room a “Technology Central.”

So far ... A layout design of the possible food court-game room shows the food court with various eating stations, as well as a game room that will have an appearance similar to that of a sports bar. The new design called for 400 sqare feet of student space to be lost for the tech central.

Administrators told senators that students would not have to pay for the renovations.

SGA Senate established an ad hoc committee to investigate the project. The five-member committee voted 3-1 not to support the food court/game room combination and Tech Central.

The survey conducted by the committee was deemed “unscientific” because its sample size was 50.

Decision/Vote: A majority of Senate took the committee’s recommendation and voted not to support the project.

Facts: Information Technology Services Director Shannon Burgin addressed the Senate.

Burgin told senators that merging the computer store and new digital printing services will be an advance to the UC and provide more retail space.

Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Al Hooten said the project would cost $77,000 to renovate the food court and game room. Hooten said additional funds would be needed for Tech Central, which would not come out of the Food Services budget.

Comments: “You are getting something new,” John Abel said.

“I don’t see the necessity in doing this,” Sen. Chris Engelman said about the shuffling of room locations and the money to be spent on their relocations.

Proposed action: Establish a university-wide internship coordinator position, taking internships away from academic departments and centralizing them into one office.

So far ... Sen. Rebecca Dailey presented and read her legislation, saying that employers are looking to hire people with on-the-job skills, similar to the experiences found in internships. Dailey read the proposal and sent it to the Senate for voting.

Dailey said a centralized office would keep the process more transparent and accessible to students. If departments wanted to retain control of managing internships, they would have to submit detailed reports each semester outlining their efforts.

Facts: Position would either be full- or part-time.

Would be responsible for hosting four “Internship Days.”

Position would require at least a bachelor’s degree.

Decision/Vote The Senate unanimously approved recommending that the university fund an Internship Coordinator position.

For more information on graduation ticket policies, see 'Tickets' in the Cover section.