Sara Tiradossi / Winonan

As the new semester began, Winona State University’s Student Senate discussed several plans they would like to achieve and projects they wish to establish on campus to meet students’ needs, according to Student Senate member Ivy Kuhn.

For one of its projects, Kuhn said the senate will be working on implementing a new initiative on campus called Classroom Awareness, which aims to raise professors’ awareness of students who have anxiety attacks during class and those who may need to leave class at a given time due to anxiety.

“We want to focus on the individual needs of the students,” College of Liberal Arts representative Rebekah Bailey said.

Bailey said it is important to keep faculty and staff up-to-date, because mental health awareness has changed significantly in a short period of time. However, the project will not be implemented right away.

Bailey said the senators are still working on the details of how to educate professors about the new program, with the hope that it will be implemented officially by fall 2017.

The student senators have also been engaged with a project that aims to replace the former location of the pharmacy with a food shelf.

The food shelf was originally supposed to open up this month, but it has currently been delayed because of construction and building permits issues, Kuhn said.

The senators expect it to open after spring break.

In regards to the specifications of the space, Kuhn said it was important to make sure it was comfortable and safe for the students who walked in.

Part of this initiative includes making the place where students pick up food secluded from the section where people drop off food, which is something Bailey said was important when handling food and poverty issues.

“Food deficits are increasing more and more, but it’s still such a difficult topic to talk about,” Bailey said. “The students’ privacy, safety and wellbeing are definitely at the forefront of this.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the semester, Bailey said the student senate’s budget availability is on track, and the senators will keep helping out and giving out money to many clubs and organizations on campus.

“We are giving students a lot of great opportunities that they would not be able to have without this money,” Bailey said.

On-campus security has also been another burning issue for the senate, especially after the start of daylight savings last semester, making it darker out for a longer period of time, Kuhn said.

According to Kuhn, security has been working on improving lighting around campus and hoping to change the security systems for education halls. Students and others will have to key card into each education building after a certain time at night, she said.

Besides the improvement of lighting and key access into buildings, security will also work on having a higher number of staff during the night shifts, an issue last semester, Kuhn said.

Among these issues, the senators also encouraged students to apply for the upcoming elections.

Kuhn said the senators are going to have supplemental elections to fill in a first—year student seat, a graduate student and a Winona State University—Rochester seat as well as a College of Business and College of Education seats, to replace open seats for the 2017-18 school year.

Applications are open until noon Wednesday, Jan. 25, and elections will be Feb. 6-9.

The next student senate’s meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

By Sara Tiradossi