The Student Services department paid a visit during Monday’s Student Government Association meeting and spoke about future advancements in security and the current COVID-19 protocol.
“This year is about building partnerships and relationships,” Vice President of Student Services Monica Burnette said.
Each staff member introduced themselves and explained their positions, which ranged from bias reporting to parking services.
Sergio Oliva, director of Public Safety, said that there will soon be license plate recognition in the gates at campus entrances, hence the new red and green lights on the bars. Gates will raise automatically, which will “keep the flow going.” Oliva said that this security improvement will be completed “hopefully next semester.”
SGA President Jayde Dieu expressed concerns to Student Services about the new COVID-19 protocols and said that RAs “don’t feel protected” as there are no more quarantine dorms.
The Dean of Students, Karen Van Norman, said that these new protocols are “not out of the ordinary” as other universities are enforcing similar rules. She added that RAs can request students they are visiting to put on a mask, and if those students refuse, supervisors will handle it from there.
“We are monitoring cases daily still,” Dr. Burnette said, and added that the new protocols are based on the CDC and the NJ Health Department, with contact tracing now up to the students.
The new Director of Campus Ministry, Fr. Nicholas Sertich, said he hopes to collaborate with other religious organizations on campus this year. He added that he wants to have “inter-religious” talks in the spring, especially with Ramadan, Passover, and Easter occurring around the same time frame.
Emma Thumann can be reached at emma.thumann@student.shu.edu.
