The Student Senate meeting passed a proposal Wednesday granting the release of $226.50 for transportation and lunches for the Student Action Team’s lobbying trip to Springfield.

The Student Action Team is leaving Oct. 26 to meet with legislators about raising funds for a new physical science building.

The Student Outreach Committee is also reaching out to students regarding the lobbying trip by having letters to legislators available at the Student Senate information tables that students can sign.

Mitchell Gurick, a freshman business major and a member of the Student Outreach Committee, has spent time working the tables located in front of the University Food Court in the Martin sLuther King Jr. University Union in order to get responses on issues affecting the student body.

“I really like being able to talk to students,” Gurick said.

Gurick said the Student Outreach Committee has received about 300 surveys in the two days that the tables have been set up.

Each Wednesday the Student Outreach Committee sets up the table in the Union from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and answers questions from the student body as well as listening to their concerns.

John Poshepny, a senior finance major and a member of the Student Outreach Committee, said he has worked both times the tables have been opened in the Union.

“Any way we can reach the students, within reason, is a good idea,” Poshepny said.

Gurick said the Student Outreach Committee has also worked with the Health Education Resource Center to send out mass emails of Student Senate surveys.

The surveys will be sent out until the end of October.

The survey results will be compiled and presented at the open forum meeting in the beginning of November.

“So far, it shows the areas we need to improve on and the areas we’re doing well in,” Poshepny said. “I think it will help the student body by making us a better organization.”

Gurick said the students have also asked questions about the electronic billboards. Questions have been asked regarding their location, the number of boards, the funding for the boards, and the advertisements.

Gurick said that despite the number of completed surveys the Student Outreach Committee has received, for every one person that agreed to take the survey, another 10 people said “no.”

“I see both sides of it. I’m a student before I’m a student senator,” Gurick said.

Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].