Marquette University Student Government is continuing their efforts to invest their nearly $900,000 budget surplus into various improvement initiatives around the Marquette campus through the “Omnibus Projects.” Efforts to advance the process of executing a variety of ideas has ramped up since MUSG President Julianne Browne and Vice President Adam Brzezinski took office on April 1.
The MUSG Senate has passed resolutions supporting three specific initiatives on campus. All initiatives are designed to improve the experiences of students and make spaces more inviting and conducive to collaboration.
MUSG Financial Vice President Logan Meyer, a junior in the College of Business Administration, along with Legislative Vice President Ian Reagen, a junior in the College of Engineering sat down for an April 24 interview with the Marquette Wire. Senators Vanessa Ahmad, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, and Ethan Burdin, a senior in the College of Engineering, also spoke about the status of the various elements of the Omnibus Project.
The “Madonna Project”
The first resolution passed was dubbed the “Madonna Project.” It expresses support to refresh the Madonna room student lounge at the bottom of Olin Engineering Hall. The room is rarely used by students and is often locked during the day. MUSG is specifically working to develop a collaboration between two colleges that could provide students with an opportunity to practice real life entrepreneurship skills in that space.
“What we’re trying to do is work with the College of Engineering and College of Business Administration to set up some kind of program … where students would propose a project, either on their own or as part of a class, and then they would get funding to develop a product. And then in that space, they would sell the product to students,” Reagen said.
The four MUSG leaders acknowledged that this idea is still new, and they said that it is not set in stone.
“We like the idea we have right now, but we definitely know that it’s going to change,” Reagen said.
The “Sakinah Bill”
Another resolution that has been passed has been dubbed the “Sakinah Bill,” which calls for an expanded and improved prayer space for Marquette‘s Muslim student population, which is over 200 students. The current Muslim prayer space sits in the Alumni Memorial Union near the Campus Ministry Offices.
Marquette’s Muslim community has been advocating for an improved prayer space for years, with records showing advocacy going all the way back to 2012. Senator Ahmad, a Muslim student herself, says the goal of a prayer space is to provide a safe location for members of the community to engage in their faith. She indicated that MUSG is utilizing a newly vacated space in Holthusen Hall, saying that the space can be used for much more than prayer.
“It’s a space where we can host events for everybody in Milwaukee, everybody at Marquette,” Ahmad said.
The “Lalu Resolution”
The third resolution calls for enhancements to Lalumiere Language Hall. MUSG is currently looking to revitalize a room that has sat empty on the second floor of the building into a new student lounge. They are also seeking to paint murals on the walls to showcase the diversity of content that is taught in the building.
“[Lalumiere] houses departments that should be showing the different diversity and culture that we have on campus,” Meyer said.
This sentiment was echoed by Languages, Literatures and Culture’s chair Sarah (Sally) Gendron, emphasizing the importance of showing the cultural backgrounds that are taught in the building.
“We are excited to see Lalumiere become a true home where all voices are honored and every culture is valued,” Gendron said in an email.
When talking about execution of these projects, Meyer emphasized the importance of building and maintaining relationships with university administration. He says that keeping lines of communication open allows MUSG and administration to be on the same page about ideas and pathways forward towards execution.
“The tool MUSG uses to enact change has always been the relationships that we build with administration,” Meyer said.
This story was written by Sahil Gupta. He can be reached at [email protected].
