Student Senate wasted no time going about their business Thursday, completing their entire agenda, which included several reports, six new recognized organizations, special allocations, and an update on the proposed amendment to the poster policy, in an hour and a half.

The first news brought to Senate’s attention was from Campus Police, who reported that there had recently been a number of burglaries in the fraternity quad. There were six incidents in three days, and the cost of stolen goods totaled over $6,000.

“In most cases the doors of the rooms were simply left unlocked. In another case, a stranger sat in a lounge for 15 minutes… and nobody questioned his being there,” said officer Seargent Terry Hunt.

The officer could not recall offhand which fraternities had been the subject of these burglaries, but he did say that more than one had been affected.

When asked if there was anything being done to prevent it, the officer replied that while there are two officers on patrol in the quad at night, they are not there during daylight hours, which is when the burglaries occurred.

“If you see anyone strange in your area, and you don’t want to confront them yourself, call Campus Police and we’ll identify them,” he said.

Next, Rob Reeder, the president of the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA), explained that they had approved legislation passed to them from the Undergraduate Senate relating to the Freedom of Information Policy, the Joint Funding Committee, and the Student Activities fee. He also mentioned that they had had a lengthy discussion about the Tartan’s April Fool’s edition, though because of time restraints they have yet to pass resolution.

Debbie Hugh from the Student Dormitory Council (SDC) reported their plans for the rest of the semester. Included therein are Mudge and Webster’s “blitz-booths” for Carnival’s annual booth competition, organized in an effort to get dorms involved in the Carnival activities.

Student Body President Dan Gilman was next to present, and expressed his desire that people attend the Town Hall Meeting on the fate of the Danforth Lounge in the UC on Monday at 5:30 in Rangos 2.

Gilman announced that he will be on the special commission formed to review the controversy of The Natrat. When asked about the goal of the commission, Gilman replied: “We’re still waiting on the charge from the Dean.”

Christopher Watkins, chair of the Student Government Elections Board, commented on the state of the elections and also explained the technical problems that occurred. Voting was extended to make up for the lost time, and votes for the offices of President, Vice President, and Vice President for Finance were all intact. Watkins reminded the Senate, however, that everyone who voted for senators will have to do so again on Monday or Tuesday.

Then, in one fell time-saving swoop, Senate reviewed and approved the non-funded recognition of six new university groups; Women in Business, The Carnegie Mellon Mac Users Group, The Carnegie Mellon College Democrats, The Christian Student Fellowship, The Pittsburgh Technology Student Advisory Council, and the Undergraduate Investment Club.

Two special allocations were approved, one going to Scotch-n-Soda for an improv conference in Chicago for $800. The money would help to pay for the cost of the conference so that the five students going would pay only $100 to register.

The second allocation approved was for $700 to the Lacrosse team, which needed the money to play two additional games in their highly successful current season.

A proposed allocation of $1,500 to Orientation 2004 for the purpose of acquiring a climbing wall was ‘tabled,’ which means that it was set aside until a later time when a two-thirds vote would decide whether it ought to be reconsidered. Putting off the decision for a few weeks was thought to be a financially prudent decision by some senators, who would rather have the money in case a student organization should unexpectedly require it in the closing weeks of the semester. While the exact amount of money remaining in the Senate’s control is not precisely known because of new and changing requests, the figure stands at above $3,500.

Lastly, before the floor was open to new business, Rebecca Nathan, Chair of the Campus Life committee, solidified the proposed poster policy that states that posters that have no active end date (i.e. posters that do not announce an event, but rather publicize something that does not physically occur, such as ‘join our club’) must all carry the date of their posting so that the one month rule can be realistically enforced.

Nathan stated, “…it would be easier for checkers,” referring to the difficulty of telling how long a poster has been up when there is no obvious expiration date.

Only one item was brought up in New Business, and it was a motion to consider a resolution concerning The Natrat, much like the GSA had begun doing. The senators agreed that they ought to issue some kind of official statement on the April 1st edition of The Tartan, citing their lack of commentary on the Kappa Sigma hazing scandal.

“I think that passing a resolution like this is one of our main goals as representatives of the students. We didn’t do anything about Kap Sig, and I think we should have,” argued Senator Tim Bowen.

However, the senators agreed to wait until the next meeting to discuss The Natrat to give time for senators to review the proposed resolution and better focus on the issue, as it is expected to be a long and heavy discussion.