The senate chambers was standing room only. Several students came out to the 39th Student Senate meeting Monday to support the new freshman class senators and the Aquatics Club.
“I didn’t think it would be this many people, I just came to support my friend [freshman senator],” said Jasmine Fields, 19, a first-year business administration student from Tampa.
Sean Siders, Anthony Siders, Prince Moore, Tia Haynes, Alexandria Collins, Krista Cabret, Jarell Baker and Korbin Miles were the elected freshman senators who attended the first meeting as officials.
The Aquatics Club did not receive funding from academic affairs and came before the senate with hopes of reopening FAMU’s two on-campus pools.
“Academic affairs told us we have to get support from our school first,” said Sparkle Kemp, 20, a third-year pre-nursing student from Jacksonville.
Jorge Olaves, advisor to the club, went into detail on how popular the pool was in the past.
“We had [the] FSU high school swim team practicing here and all the [high school] district divers,” Olaves said.
Currently the men and women swimming and diving teams use facilities at Florida State to practice and prepare for the season.
Olaves also mentioned how the Navy ROTC program previously used the pool for training.
“We were offering CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] classes, first aid, Navy and ROTC training, athletic training, toddler classes…instructional classes,” Olaves said.
In order to fix the pool, it will cost roughly $71,000 according to Olaves and Kemp.
When speaking to the senate, Olaves emphasized the need for swimming classes and a functioning pool by mentioning how six out of 10 blacks are at high risk of drowning.
“I didn’t know we had a swimming pool on campus and I didn’t know that many African-Americans were at risk,” Fields said.
“We have so many activities lined up and we need to be using our pool,” said Kemp, president of the aquatics club.
“It starts with SGA and student affairs, our main goal is to get enough (money) to fix the pool,” Kemp said.
Plans for the Coleman Library Showcase were also discussed as well as the idea of making the Senate Chambers into a technically savvy smart room.
Senators proposed the 5,000 Strikes campaign, which is intended to corral 5,000 students to vote in the 2010-2011 student elections, according to Senator Amber Gray.
Junior Senator Bridgett Simmons and Graduate Senator Rondrea Mathis were confirmed for their positions and Keith Blue was confirmed secretary of communications.