For the first time ever, the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska streamed live video for the weekly senate meeting. Now students can watch student senate meetings from the comfort of their homes. The live stream was a long-time project of Sen. Matthew Boring, communications chair.
The meeting could be viewed on the ASUN website — www.unl.edu/asun — via USTREAM, a free live video streaming website.
On the USTREAM website, viewers can watch the video and comment on what is going on. Since student senate meetings are a public forum, students can now voice their opinions of matters as they are being discussed. For many, this means new levels of involvement with university.
The live-streaming meeting captured a grand total of nine viewers, which was greatly welcomed due to the timely release of news that the meeting would be live. The senate is working to increase viewership by getting the word out about its vastly larger forum.
Now, issues like the ones discussed last night can be accessed throughout campus. The meeting's discussions included an announcement for the idea that UNL Alert could be turned into an opt-out service instead of an opt-in service.
A reason behind the idea was a concern by ASUN President Justin Solomon. The idea for the new service was taken from a Big Ten meeting that was attended to by members of the senate earlier this summer.
"The alert system was put in place to let students know of dangerous situations, much like the Virginia Tech incident," Solomon said. "The opt-out service idea is definitely something that will be considered."
Additionally, a piece of legislation was passed for changes to a bylaw affecting the Freshman Campus Leadership Associates, as well as a piece about Constitution Day.
The Constitution Day bill was voted in as part of a federally mandated law that has the University of Nebraska-Lincoln host events for Constitution Day. The day hopes to present undergraduate students with options for life after undergraduate school, Solomon said when introducing the bill. The consensus was that ASUN would co-sponsor Constitution Day with the UNL College of Law on Sept. 16.
Prior to the meeting, the student senate met at the Campus Recreation Center for a guided tour on new expansion plans. In the plans, the weight-lifting and cardiovascular room will be expanded by replacing the current custodial area. The expansion plan also includes space for 20 more treadmills, 15 elliptical trainers and 15 stationary bikes.
"There will be cardiovascular (machines) for as far as the eye can see," said Bill Goa, Jr., senior associate director for Campus Recreation.
The plans were not discussed in the meeting but will be discussed in coming weeks.
WESTONPOOR@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM
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