During the last official SGA meeting for this school year, the organization had one final guest speaker. Betsy Jo Mullens, director of Housing and Residence Life, provided SGA with plans for the upcoming years at USI.
Mullens announced that the package hub would be housed in a new facility, allowing for 24-hour student access. Starting in August, students who need to pick up packages can do so at the Residence Life Resource Center, located on the corner of Clarke Lane and O’Daniel Lane. The relocation is occurring in hopes of making package pickup more accessible to students, therefore allowing the ability to pick up after office hours. The change comes after what Mullens describes as a “huge increase in package deliveries.”
“About five years ago, we were getting about 6,000 packages a year,” Mullens said. “This past year, we logged almost 30,000 packages.”
The Residence Life Resource Center currently houses a laundry facility for on-campus apartments, but has been empty since the university moved University Religious Life to the RFWC. Additionally, in preparation for the new package center, HRL moved some offices to their main office.
Mullens said the university has updated security and parking for the center, adding additional security cameras, fog lights and “giving up” some of the staff parking spaces for students.
Mullens said students with questions, concerns, or suggestions should contact her department at living@usi.edu.
In addition to the guest speaker, updates were provided from two of the committees designed to address student concerns.
The executive board met with President Bridges to discuss matters such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, housing and SpringFest. Tamia Smith, SGA president, reports that their meeting was a broad conversation, with President Bridges also asking many questions.
Furthermore, the Public Safety Committee met with Sam Preston, director of Public Safety, to discuss accessibility and facility issues on campus. When moving to their new office in the fall, Public Safety was unaware that the doorbell located at their window in the RFWC and designed for 24-hour student access, was not connecting to their offices.
To address this, an officer will now be available at the window 24/7, effective immediately. The committee also reported that the university hopes to convert the area where the former Public Safety office used to be, by the Liberal Arts building, to primarily accessible parking spaces.
“They still have to work in accommodation and coordination with the ADA and federal guidelines, but he also has heavy emphasis on the fact that they are trying not to do the bare minimum,” said Sophia Driver, Romain College of Business representative.
Before closing out the final regular session meeting for the current executive board and general assembly, SGA President Tamia Smith reminded members to attend the Thursday, April 24, inauguration to welcome the new SGA members. The first meeting of the 2025-2026 SGA will occur May 1.