The Student Senate is looking for a new place to call home on campus. Senators have expressed frustration with the location of the current Senate house at 11 Baxter, across Forest Avenue from the Portland campus. The president’s plan to expand on the Portland campus may provide the Senate the opportunity to move it’s been looking for.
Student Senate Chair Jeremy Collette confirmed the senate’s intentions to move out of 11 Baxter.
“It is in working process right now”, said Collette, “We are open to swapping our current place with someone else. The fact is that there is not much to be done at this point, as there is not any additional space on campus.”
Senator Joe Frechette says that for a commuter school like USM, it is extremely important for students to have easy access to voice their opinions.
“We need to be on campus to be accessible and effective. It does not make sense at all for such an important student organization as Student Senate to be across 4 lanes of highway from campus”. He said the crossing effectively closes the building to the handicapped. “It seems hardly reachable for someone in a wheelchair.”
Collette stressed that the Senate represents all students and that it is doing its best to stay involved in everyday student life, but that it is difficult from its current location.
“It is so important to make sure that the university understands how important it is us to be here on campus in the middle of student activism.”
Coordinator of Student Senate Operations Kathleen Pease was on the planning committee to build a new student center. They hired a consultant to design the new building. The Student Senate has been on the top 10 list of buildings for years and for the past two years it has been number one but “building a parking garage this year definitely jumped in front,” she said.
Helen Gorgas Goulding was a Director of Portland Student Life about five years ago when a concept paper was written and recommendations were made to the administration about building a new student center.
“We were talking about putting some more floors on the current building and make some recreation connections with the gym,” she said. She said USM invited a designer from the University of Maryland but it did not go further than that.
Craig Hutchinson, Vice President for Student & University Life says the Student Senate is high on the list of priorities in the University’s plan to expand over the next five years, but that he could not specify exactly when any part of the plan will fall into place.
Nino Kemoklidze can be contacted at [email protected]