A.S. discusses student services

The Associated Students Senate held its first meeting of the semester Wednesday in the Senate Chambers.

The senate heard a report from the President's Blue Ribbon Task Force, set up to improve student services, A.S.I. President Carl Kemp receiving an apologetic letter from the A.S.I. president at New Mexico State University and an announcement of vacant senate positions.

The letter received by Kemp, in response to anti-Semitic graffiti aimed at men's basketball Coach Seth Greenberg, was "very apologetic" Kemp said, adding it did not reflect the far less sincere apology offered almost two weeks ago by officials of the university at Las Cruces, N.M.

Most of the meeting was spent discussing recent efforts to improve student services and proposed initiatives to further improve student services in the future.

Among these improvements now in effect are extended hours for the administration windows. During the first two weeks of the semester the windows will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday and Friday's hours will be extended to include the afternoon, said William Griffith, the vice president of administration and finance who sat on the task force.

A service Griffith said he would like to have into full-swing within a year is his concept of "one-stop shopping" for students. The program would entail cross-training staff members to be available to help students in many different services.

"This will allow students to accomplish a great deal more by standing in only one line," Griffith said.

Great improvements have been made in the channels of grad checks and degree audits, the task force reported. Previously, grad checks would take several months to process. By 1997, grad checks will be completed before the add/drop date of that term, said Ron Lee, assistant vice president of enforcement management and analysis.

A.S.I. Vice President Michael Barrett announced the resignation of senators Susan Funk, Scott Honn, and Danny Villavicencio from the College of Arts, Health and Human Services, and Natural Sciences, respectively. The colleges have three weeks to fill the positions. If they fail to elect someone in that time they will lose the right and the senate will elect the representative.

Jacinto Gonzalez Jr. was approved as an associate student justice and the senate enthusiastically appointed Lakeisha Morgan to head the Kaleidoscope Committee.