With President Miaoulis and Vice President Dr. John King as guest speakers at the Senate meeting, students jumped at the opportunity to ask a variety of pressing questions in the Mary Teft White Cultural Center.
The senate meeting on Monday, Sept. 17 included seven organization leaders and nine general members. The topics varied from the university’s master plan to priorities on sustainability and one student brought attention to the neglect of putting the flag at half-mast on 9/11.
Before the questioning began, Miaoulis discussed some future plans and changes to branding and highlighted the “prioritization process” where the administration goes through the process of seeing what majors they need to keep, improve, and cut. He then described the process of phasing out majors where some class years are grandfathered in and the major will no longer appear as an option when prospective students apply.
Miaoulis said that when majors are phased out only 2% of students are affected.
The future of the master plan was a hot subject, the more it was discussed the more questions were generated. One upcoming project includes the removal of Baypoint to transition to mostly on-campus housing.
“Our next priority in terms of moving students back to campus is to transition out of Baypoint because of where it is located (with) the bridge, and the irregularity of the shuttle,” King said.
This is a project that is planned to be completed next summer and will be the continuation of a bigger project that pertains to five years between 2002 and 2027. The University is also looking to move students out of Almedia housing but this project has no concrete start date.
The master plan is already a project that has been in the works, most recently they have updated the older School of Engineering and added computer science labs, design labs and even food science labs.
Dr. King also took accountability for the neglect of Gov. Mckee’s request for all flags to be at half mast until 12:00pm on Sept. 11 as a way to memorialize the day’s history. There were flags on RWU property that were not at full staff
“It was a mistake to not have the flags lowered at both of those locations, that will not happen again.”
Another frequent topic that came up during the open-floor section was sustainability. Students were concerned with the university’s priorities on recycling, green energy, and trash by the shorelines.
Dr. King discussed previous composting efforts in residence halls, something that became less advertised during and after the pandemic. He said this is something he would look to bring back.
When asked about green energy, King discussed the previous ideas surrounding solar panels and wind energy. He said that the location of the campus does not produce enough wind to purchase a wind turbine but, the university is continuing to look at solar options.
RWU is also looking to switch its vehicle fleet to hybrid and electric, meaning that the vans students use for their clubs and organizations will be upgraded to a more sustainable model.
“Facilities did a study looking undertook a study done from the outside looking at our vehicle fleet from a green lens,” King said. “Those recommendations are going to be utilized as we purchase future vehicles, we’re going to try to reduce our carbon footprint that way as well.”
