Last night’s Student Senate meeting began with the finance committee’s discussion of a grant for the Musician’s Guild. Currently, the Musician’s Guild holds free concerts on campus with local bands. However, the organization wishes to grow and acquire bands outside the local spectrum for future concerts and this is where funding comes into play.
The Musician’s Guild has scheduled an open mic night on Nov. 13, which is free of charge, and on Dec. 4 there will be four bands coming to URI, both local and from out of state. At the December concert the Musician’s Guild plans on charging for tickets, with prices around $5 for URI students, in order to jumpstart the group’s goal to grow and be able to pay for the bands. Â
Additionally, the committee plans to advertise for the shows using posters along with social media. The head of the financial committee, Cody Anderson, expressed his support of Musician’s Guild, saying that  “they’re a great organization and we should meet them in the middle with a grant and allow them to grow.†The motion to allow a grant for the Musician’s Guild was approved.
John Sears, the director of Housing, addressed the possibility of updating cameras in campus dormitories. Currently, the university’s residence halls have cameras outside dormitory entrances and by stairwells.
The argument for new cameras was very straightforward: to replace outdated cameras, with hopes of having cameras that operate at a modern technological standard to provide safety for students along with university property.
Over the past few years URI has invested over $10 million to create a unified lock system in dorms; consisting of both a key-card and four-digit code in order to unlock a room. By creating a universal lock system on campus the dorm-security has improved greatly.
Likewise, Sears would like to continue the same trend of heightened student and campus property safety, but there were many questions regarding the placement and effectiveness of new cameras by the Student Senate members. Â
“Although our generation is very comfortable with surveillance, but I was brought up with different values regarding privacy and I don’t believe it’s a necessary precaution at URI, frankly because I don’t believe there’s a real problem at hand,†Senator Duffy said.
Sears responded that he has the utmost respect for all student’s opinions on the topic and at the previous institution where he was the Director of Housing there were no cameras inside dormitories and no major problems were evident.
On the other hand Senator Samantha King said, “Personally I’m a very big supporter of the camera movement, because after all we are a public university and anyone can walk on our campus. This can only strengthen the safety of URI’s campus.â€
Sears continued to emphasize that the cameras are not to infringe on privacy, and are only in main traffic areas within dormitories. If the motion to replace the old cameras is passed there will be strict policy put in place to mandate the use, access, and placement of all cameras within dormitories.
The Rocketry Club, led by engineers Brian McDunough and Joe Jacobs, teaches members the basics of rockets, such as building and launching rockets. In respect to liability, an insurance policy of $2 million would be covered by the National Rocket Association (NRA), after paying an inexpensive annual membership.This would allow the club a license to participate in rocket competitions and to build and operate high-powered rockets.
After the Senate deemed that the club went above and beyond requirements for club recognition they recognized The Rocketry Club with a grant pending with the financial committee in the near future.