ASG Senate hears proposal for arboretum around Saddleback

Steven Jung

This meeting had something new for the ASG Senate this last Thursday on Sept. 13. A guest speaker named Michelle Mareks came to speak about a new project she is trying to get the school to work on.

Mareks introduced an idea of an arboretum for the school. It would go around the entire school campus. There would be two trails; one for walking, jogging and other types of cardio exercises, and another trail for bicycling.

The trails were marked by a red line in the picture seen. Mareks wants to plant California local plants in order to make more shade along the trail.

“If we can add shade; we can lower the temperature in the surrounding area,” Mareks said. “This can lead to less power by using less air conditioning and saving the school money.”

The project will be expensive. The construction of the trail will alone cost over $900,000. Building the trail also has four phases of construction.

Planting trees and bushes will also be expensive and have three phases. The project is getting funding from outside sources however, Toshiba has contributed to $30,000 for seeds of plants for the arboretum.

Mareks has stated that the arboretum will produce unique opportunities for the school. If the school places solar panels for Wi-Fi, lighting, and lights, which are already included in the $900,000, the school can have outdoor classes.

The school can have some buildings; which the sole purpose of the building will be to produce shade for the outdoor classes. The arboretum will go all around the campus of the school and the trails will also connect with some of the trails in the public parks.

After Mareks gave her presentation the senate moved onto public comments to make a few announcements. Tomorrow at 10 a.m. there will be a lecture for science students in the SM331 room. It is in a large room so any student, even if they are not studying science can attend.

The senate moved on to then discuss about how priority registration will change next year starting fall of 2013. They said that in order to get priority registration, a student will need to meet with their counselor. They also noted that next Thursday will be club rush.

The senate wants to take this time to help out the clubs to get them to know that if they need help, the senate is there whether it would be funding or a representative for some type of important meeting that affects the clubs.

Once public comments were taken care of the senate spoke about assigning senators to particular committees. The parking committee, marketing committee, board policy and administrative regulation committee and outreach committees already have a member of the senate assigned to them.

Others that needed a representative included the judiciary committee, budget committee, publicity committee and diversity student council. The senate then moved the approval of the budget to next week and then moved on to what they believed was more important.

The senate wants to change the ASB stamp to call it something different; they have not yet decided but will ask students what they think. One idea they just mentioned as a possibility is calling it the Gaucho Stamp.

The senate then had to wrap up the meeting with taking at a quick look at the survey they will be conducting. Some of the questions were where exactly are there Wi-Fi problems for students and if students felt obligated to speak with the solicitors that are in the quad sometimes.

They want to be able to work out as many issues as possible and may have found a way to address three issues by condensing them into one whole survey.

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