» By VALENCIA JOHNSON – vjohnson@my.apsu.edu
Director of Public Safety Lantz Biles was asked to be the guest speaker at the SGA meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 21, to discuss campus safety.
Biles said there are 25 officers on staff. Fourteen are sworn-in police officers of the State of Tennessee and three are administrators, like Biles. The other 11 officers handle calls of service such as escorting students. There are always at least two officers on campus per shift.
Biles does not see any plans for additional officers due to budget constraints.
Biles also said he does not publish the patrol patterns for the campus security because there is no set route at a specific time. Biles then briefly mentioned the Crime Prevent Program that is in place, with which some of the SGA staff has been involved in.
According to Biles, there are currently about 200 ACTV cameras on campus for security purposes.
Parking is also handled by Biles’ department. There is an adequate number of parking spaces, Biles said, but they may not be convenient for some students.
Seven new senators were sworn-in at the meeting. During this week’s SGA meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 28, the new senators will be photographed and the pictures will be uploaded to the website. There is currently an open seat for the College of Education senate position.
Greg Singleton, associate vice president and dean of students, congratulated the new senators on their positions and on such a wonderful turn-out for votes, stating this past election had the second highest vote count for the fall semester.
Chris Drew, graduate student senator, submitted legislation for ”comment box” to be considered so the student body can submit their ideas. Drew’s proposal will be discussed further at this week’s SGA meeting.
During last week’s meeting, a sign-up sheet was passed around for those in SGA who are interested in the Mudbowl tournament. Those who are in SGA working the event will be compensated with a free Mudbowl T-shirt.
Singleton said 64 teams signed up to participate in the Mudbowl.
Singleton also said that he wants SGA to address making possible changes to the Student Code of Conduct. It has been 18 months since the last revision.
GHOST was mentioned at the meeting as an upcoming event planned for Sunday, Oct. 30.
Later in the semester, SGA will be attending and representing APSU during a conference held in St. Louis. TAS
