In the meeting key issues such as the need for soliciting student inputin decision making, the need for additional recreational space on campus and the possibility of adding students on administrative committees.,”

In their most recent meeting with Marquette Student Government officials, the board of trustees was "very open" to student concerns, according to MUSG President and College of Business Administration senior Dan Calandriello.

In the meeting, key issues included soliciting student input in decision making, the need for additional recreational space on campus and the possibility of adding students on administrative committees.

"The board of trustees seemed very open to the student concerns we discussed during the meeting," Calandriello said.

MUSG Executive Vice President Kristen Kamm agreed.

"The administrators and trustees were genuinely interested in my views about student life," she said.

Calandriello and Kamm attended their second board of trustees meeting of the school year in December.

All other MUSG Executive Board members, as well as several other students not affiliated with MUSG, met with the members of the board's Student Affairs Committee during lunch on the day of the December meeting.

During the lunch, students presented concerns such as scholarship availability at Marquette.

"One of the trustees asked me if I could make one change about the university, what would it be and I said that the major improvement I would make is to increase the number of scholarships available in order to relieve the financial burdens of college," said MUSG Programs Vice President and College of Arts & Sciences junior Stephen Ryan.

Other topics discussed included student life at Marquette, Kamm said.

"We discussed the benefits of programs like Orientation Week and RHA, which serve and support new students," she said. "We also spoke about student housing for upperclassmen and the need for recreation space on campus."

The meeting with the board was in itself a benefit, according to Calandriello.

"The first step for more student input is interaction and getting to know each other on both a professional and personal level,"

he said. "Those in charge need to see that we are capable of a lot of things and the day with the board of trustees is a great way for the students to interact with the administration."

Calandriello also presented a speech to the trustees in which he

emphasized the importance of student input in future Marquette decisions.

In his speech Calandriello cited both the positive result of the

soliciting student opinion about whether to make O'Donnell Hall co-ed and the negative results of not soliciting student opinion in decisions made earlier in the year.

"Improvements need to be made in the mindsets of the administration regarding the decision making process," Calandriello said in his speech.

Currently, the major project of the trustees is the billion-dollar endowment goal, a goal that Calandriello called a "great project" during his speech.

"However great the project, we need to focus on a more holistic

approach, something that students can touch and be a part of developing and experiencing," Calandriello said.

In the December meeting, the board of trustees also approved the university budget for next year and MUSG expressed the need to make things at Marquette more affordable.

"All in all the December meeting with the board of trustees went very well," Calandriello said. "We let them know that Marquette is home. It feels right and we need to keep it that way, and interaction with the administration is a major key to that."

“