By Rocio Hernandez

Alpha Omicron Pi announces its admittance to UNR’s Panhellenic Council

Heather Hays and Mary Kate Sweeney, professional staff members of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, presented the upcoming arrival of their organization to the University of Nevada, Reno at the Associated Students of the University of Nevada meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

Hays announced that AOII was selected to join UNR’s Panhellenic Council on Oct. 3. It has been eight years since a new sorority has joined the council (Sigma Kappa in 2006).

“We were identified as an organization that really would really come in as a strong partner and the values of our organization really paralleled with the values of the Greek organization in your [campus],” Hays said.

The representatives encouraged senators to promote the sorority to any women they believed might be interested in it. Sweeney said that AOII’s recruitment and colonization process would take place between January and February.

Senators support Campus Accountability and Safety Act

Sens. Abby Feenstra of the College of Liberal Arts, Catie McCrillis of the College of Science and Ken Brooke of the College of Business presented their resolution in support of the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, a piece of legislation written by United States Sen. Claire McCaskill.

The summary of McCaskill’s Act found on Congress.gov states that it seeks to require all institutions of higher education that receive federal funding to “clearly delineate responsibilities and share information about certain serious crimes, including sexual violence, occurring against students or other individuals on campus” with local law enforcement agencies.

Feenstra said that the Act aims to increase the transparency of the prevalence of sexual assault among universities. It also aims enhance prevention efforts and resources available to sexual assault survivors at institutions of higher education.

The resolution passed unanimously.

Senator Reports

Sen. Ryan Suppe: Reynolds School of Journalism 

Sen. Suppe is working on creating a resolution in support of bringing student-run businesses to the Gateway Plaza as part of the university’s master plan, which describes the goals University President Marc Johnson has for the campus over the next 10 years.

Sen. Nicholas Andrew: Interdisciplinary Programs

Sen. Andrew gave his fellow senators a report on a meeting he had with Dr. Elliott Parker, director of the university’s core curriculum, prior to Wednesday’s meeting concerning new core curriculum requirements. From his conversation with Parker, Andrew learned students will be required to take only two of three core humanities courses and the university will be adding new courses such as ethics and science and technologies to the core curriculum.

According to Andrew, students entering the university in fall 2016 will be affected by these changes.

However, Andrew’s most pressing concern after his meeting with Parker was that many students aren’t aware of the upcoming core curriculum changes and that there is no organized effort to inform them about it. Andrew encouraged his fellow senators to work to ensure that their constituents are informed of the curriculum changes.

Rocio Hernandez can be reached at rhernandez@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @rociohdz19.