Applications for Student Government Association (SGA) senators, as well as the positions of vice president and president, will open next Friday, Feb. 18, and a link to the Google Form will be sent in a university-wide email from the association soon, as announced in SGA’s regular legislative body meeting this Monday.

Also at SGA’s legislative meeting on Monday, Feb. 7, Chief Jeffrey Besong from Public Safety paid what now will be a monthly visit. Rotating Officers and members of the Public Safety staff will visit SGA meetings every month going forward to get perspectives from all aspects of the department.

Although SGA does still have a separate committee dedicated to meeting with Public Safety to address student concerns, Besong said the monthly appearances from him and other officers are meant to “directly address current student concerns and complaints.”

At the meeting on Monday, Besong provided updates on full-time access to the University Center (UC) and the Student Center.

“The new card readers in the lobby of the UC and Student Center have been put in,” Besong said. “If you need safety from the street, you can now stay in the lobby and call Public Safety 24/7.”

He also discussed that they are in the process of hiring new officers to replace those who have left this semester, since the number of calls are “declining as it is colder out” and “people are staying inside.” He added that officers will be receiving additional training on topics like mental health in May.

“We [officers] are required to complete certain trainings, like racial profiling, mental health and gender topics,” Besong said. “We specifically select topics each year to focus on what we need to work on. We want to address recent student and staff concerns in these trainings.”

After Besong’s appearance, the cabinet and eight senators in attendance, barely making quorum, went ahead with the weekly agenda; discussing the events in the making, updates on topics discussed with the Director of the Counseling Center from last week, content for Black History Month and live streams of vice president and presidential debates.

Communications Director Drew Simko provided updates on an additional speed dating event and graphics for Black History Month.

“Our [SGA] speed dating event is now February 24 from 6-7:30 in Lawrence Hall ballroom,” Simko said. “We’re also making weekly informative graphics on Black History Month.”

Senator Julianne Bailey announced that live stream debates for vice president and president debates were approved to be held with the U-View station in the University Center.

“I talked with Jesse Dillion and emailed Robin,” Bailey said. “We can have two hours, but more if more people are interested in applying for the positions.”

Specific details on when and how to view these live streams will be provided in the next week.

The meeting closed with Parliamentarian Kairi Stallsmith urging senators to attend the MultiCultural fair, which was a recurring statement throughout the meeting and members.

“Please go to the MultiCultural fair,” Stallsmith said. “If there is one thing you do this week, it should be that. Many of us worked hard to put this together.”

The MultiCultural Fair will be held today, Wednesday, Feb. 9, from 5-8 p.m. in the Lawrence Hall Lobby, Ballroom, LH 200, and the Student Center shuttle lot.