The Syracuse University Student Association does not endorse the proposal to decrease the number of unrelated people living in a house in the city of Syracuse from five to three.

This position was made clear at Monday’s meeting by Bill 51.29, a unanimously-passed resolution. The bill, which does not have any binding power, comes after a March 1 off-campus housing debate at the Syracuse Common Council.

No actual legislation is being debated before the council.

Residence halls are currently at or near capacity, according to the bill. Thousands of people would be forced to look for housing farther away from the university, said Marlene Goldenberg, vice president of SA.

‘We’re going to be moving into more neighborhoods where people don’t want us,’ she said.

The resolution was followed by a recap of the SA-sponsored shuttle service at the beginning and end of Spring Break. A coach bus hired by SA provided students free transportation to and from the Syracuse Hancock International Airport and the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center.

‘From what I’ve heard from students, it was a huge success,’ said SA President Ryan Kelly, adding that he himself used the shuttle. ‘I was personally pleased by the service.’ But a cost-benefit analysis will be conducted before SA decides if it will sponsor a shuttle again, he said.

Kelly also announced a new SA recruitment campaign to take place during the next few weeks. ‘We’re going to make a really big push to fill our seats,’ he said.

The campaign will include sending listserv e-mails to individual colleges and visits by SA representatives to large lectures. Right now, there are 17 voting members in the assembly, and 31 more seats are available.

There is still about $2,975 in the Special Programming account, according to SA Comptroller Mike Rizzolo. No funding bills were passed during Monday’s meeting.

The meeting concluded with a presentation on the university’s smoking policy by Neville Williams, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Williams, who is also an assembly member, conducted a study on Syracuse University and other universities’ smoking policies and is working with the Campus Sustainability Subcommittee on Smoking to revise SU’s current policy.

SA is not yet involved in the revisions, and Williams was working independent of the assembly.

According to Williams, SU’s smoking policy does not define the distance from university buildings in which smoking is prohibited.

Based on a study he conducted of 38 universities, Williams proposed two suggestions for amendments to university policy: to prohibit smoking within partially enclosed university facilities, such as bus stops, and to prohibit smoking within 25 feet of university-owned buildings.

These suggestions, among others, are being examined by the subcommittee, which is also considering smokers’ rights, Williams said.

The assembly members began to debate the issues, but Kelly cut off further debate.

‘I think we should probably look at this in cabinet and then bring it back next week in a more condensed report,’ Kelly said. ‘This is not a policy endorsed by the Student Association, and we definitely have to do some more research outside of the assembly.’

The next SA meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 26 in Maxwell Auditorium.

Published on March 18, 2007 at 12:00 pm