Eighteen student representatives, 80 faculty members and two elected deans assembled for the first meeting of the Academic Senate to run through the upcoming school year goals.
U president David Pershing addressed the senate about student enrollment, which has remained steady over the past year. However, many universities in the state suffered drops in enrollment as a result of a policy change for missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which allows young men and women to serve missions at ages 18 and 19, respectively. Freshman enrollment at the U has dropped significantly because of the policy change.
Pershing said that although freshman enrollment has dropped, the U has over 500 potential students who reserved their place at the U before leaving to serve LDS missions.
He also addressed campus construction, including a new parking structure, a new law building and a new student life building.
“We are trying to build better facilities for our students and student athletes,” Pershing said.
Pershing also entertained complaints, questions and suggestions from faculty members, which were mostly associated with salary numbers at the U compared to other Pac-12 schools.
Student body president, Sam Ortiz, laid out ASUU’s plans for the school year.
Ortiz said that ASUU hopes to increase diversity at the U, which has the lowest diversity rate among the Pac-12 schools. ASUU plans to increase parent engagement in the community by giving parents who are not native English speakers online resources to help get their children interested in college.
He wants to improve high school recruitment for students coming from diverse backgrounds.
He also hopes to decrease discrimination on campus and in the classroom with safe learning environment training, which he said would help decrease “offhand” comments that sometimes occur in class.
Ortiz also mentioned the U’s retention rate, which was 87 percent from last fall. He said that while this number is not bad, he would like to see it increase. He suggested implementing a mentoring program on campus to set freshmen up with upperclassmen, saying that  this would benefit freshmen retention rate by having the upperclassmen share their “tricks” with younger students.
In addition to the mentoring program, Ortiz stressed the importance of faculty connections and enhancing student life.
Regulation for bikes, skateboards and scooters was also covered at the meeting. Alma Allred of Commuter Services addressed the changes made to the policy that is set to go into effect in a few weeks after Commuter Services completes its educational campaign to help students understand what is and is not against the policy.
“We’re encouraging them to use their heads,” Allred said. “We are not going to stop those people who are commuting.”
A proposal for the creation of an Interdisciplinary Certificate in Entrepreneurship also passed the academic senate at the meeting. The certificate will help the growing number of students both on campus and attending local high schools who plan on starting their own business to achieve their goals.