The Student Association plans to follow in the footsteps of other colleges and universities around the country by giving an official name to the student section at this season’s basketball games.

Steven Newler, member of SA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Athletics, met last week with Michael Veley, associate director for SU Athletics, to discuss plans for giving the student section a new name. The final choice, however, will be left up to the students.

‘(Veley) was very excited about naming our student section, but he would rather the naming be student-directed while he handles issues of sponsorship,’ Newler said.

Newler plans to hold a contest for students to decide what their section will be named. The contest will either be held through e-mail submissions, or as an item up for approval in this year’s SA elections.

‘Any student (input) on this we can get would be appreciated,’ Newler said.

Once a name has been chosen, Newler said, Veley would work with Nike to make T-shirts for the student section to wear at the first game.

Newler said that so far the SA has come up with one working title for the student section, ‘Otto’s Army.’

If a name can be approved within the next two weeks, Newler said a midnight madness party, a tradition at many schools marking the beginning of practice for the basketball team, could be thrown at the university.

In other SA news:

n SA Vice President Travis Mason said he will meet with Goldstein Student Center staff soon to set a trial date in an attempt to keep the Goldstein Dining Center open an extra hour until midnight. Based on the amount of student activity during the trial date, it will be determined whether or not Goldstein hours will remain this way throughout the school year.

Another issue on South Campus the SA is looking into is keeping the computer cluster in Goldstein open 24 hours.

‘It doesn’t make sense that computer clusters are open 24 hours on North Campus, but not on South Campus,’ Mason said. ‘The Student Association is extremely devoted to looking at the issues of South Campus students.’

n The SA’s Orange Seeds, a group of freshman leaders and peer mentors, held a retreat over the weekend in the Lawrinson Hall penthouse. There they participated in team-building activities and the freshman members were paired with their peer mentors.

The Orange Seeds first meeting will take place this Wednesday. They will meet with a panel of student leaders to discuss the issues of being a leader on campus and the obstacles that must be overcome to do so.

n At Monday night’s meeting, the SA discussed computing issues that will be brought to the attention of Computing and Media Services. The SA will discuss such topics as installing wireless Internet in residence halls and upgrading the OrangeMail system with CMS.

Published on September 27, 2004 at 12:00 pm