Student Senate To Work On Reinstating Doghouse Swipe Boxes

Nora Betts

Sower Staff

The Student Senate said on Tuesday it would talk with Janzow and Chartwells staff to possibly reinstate Doghouse swipe boxes.

The swipe box program was discontinued two years ago partly due to budgeting concerns. The program had a pre-set menu of around six items that could be purchased at the Doghouse Grill with a meal swipe rather than Bulldog bucks. 

President Julia Witt said she hopes to focus the Senate’s efforts on the Doghouse swipe boxes and “at least start the conversation” with the people in charge since it is not an issue that the Senate can resolve directly. 

The swipe box program would give students an additional, affordable dining option and bring more business to the grill, Witt said. The Doghouse also is open later than the dining hall, which would give students longer access to meals. 

A major concern among the campus community in previous years was the number of single-use takeout boxes thrown out across campus. Treasurer Alec Johnson said that the program would likely combine swipe boxes with the green O2GO lunchboxes to reduce plastic waste.

The Senate this week also discussed creating a unified campus calendar that would include concerts, recitals, sporting events, and club events. Student Life Office staff, club advisers, and sports coaches are among those who would have access to the calendar to include events and work in closer communication with the Senate. 

Senate members had a different approach to the issue of a unified calendar, arguing that people should interact with the existing SLO calendar that is emailed weekly to the student body rather than have the Senate create its own. Members suggested the problem is not the calendar but the lack of communication with SLO to get events added. Each SLO calendar email includes a link to a form to add events.

“The SLO calendar has gotten better over the past couple of weeks,” said Witt. “It wasn’t good a month ago.” Senate officers and members agreed that the amount of event information in SLO emails has been steadily improving. 

The Senate held an unofficial vote to set aside the unified calendar issue for the remainder of the semester. The issue will be reevaluated in the spring semester depending on whether SLO’s emails continue to improve or if a new calendar is deemed necessary by the Senate.

The Senate also decided it would look into campus lighting concerns and dark spots on campus where people feel unsafe. 

Witt said the next step will likely be an “overview of general campus safety and security” in the form of a survey sent to students by SLO to identify places of concern. The issue of campus lighting has been moved to the Physical Campus Committee for further discussion.