UNCA Student Government Association met last week in its second meeting of the fall semester to tackle student issues and go over upcoming events around campus.
It was announced in the meeting that a visitor parking fee was introduced for this semester from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Student Body President Obianko Osaro attended the transportation committee and gave more information regarding this new policy and the $3 fee that was announced.
“Visitors can reserve parking spaces for events during business hours. If it’s after business hours, it’s free but you still need to get a permit. Just to be safe.”
Autumn McNeil, elections commissioner and student, sought clarification on the parking fees if it was hourly or by day.
“Is it like $3 an hour or $3 a day?” McNeil said.
Osaro responded.
“No, it’s just 3. It’s a flat $3. Originally it was $5 but I spoke with MHW and said there are people that will only be on campus for like an hour or two. But the fee is for the entire day or however long they would be on campus,” Osaro said.
You still need a visitor parking pass after 5 p.m. to park on campus after hours, and the weekends are the same, according to Osaro.
McNeil followed up with another question regarding after-hours parking on campus.
“So if somebody was to park on campus Thursday at 6 p.m., it’s free, but if it’s the next day and they stayed at what time does the pass stop?” McNeil said.
“6 a.m.,” Osaro said.
Jeff Sepot, general manager of Brown Dining Services and Chartwells Dining Staff, gave a presentation going over new changes to the dining schedule and inside of Brown and new events on campus and answering student questions. Chef Brett Harris and Allie Lemings, marketing manager, were in attendance.
Brett Harris is the new chef on campus as he started at the beginning of the semester.
“He is new to campus. Chef has been working extensively most recently in hotels, but he is adapting really quickly to the higher education environment,” Sepot said.
There’s also a new sous chef on campus named Austin Adams, according to Sepot.
Adams was absent from the presentation.
Sepot shared the commitment he’s currently making on campus.
“To have a lot more continuity and consistency with dining services, which I was told was one of the biggest issues in the past. We have Chef’s eyes on everything that goes out of the Brown kitchen,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared how Lemings is playing a part in the interaction between SGA and other committees on campus.
“Leming is our full-time marketing manager on campus. She is the one that will interact the most directly with anyone that’s here in SGA or any other committees on campus, as we coordinate events, we definitely look forward to student engagement.
Sepot wants more student input on dining to better the relationship on campus.
“Our number two objective is getting you guys involved in the process. We’re only going to be as successful as we are in our relationship with you as we move forward on campus,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared how Lemings is playing a part in the interaction between SGA and other committees on campus.
“Leming is our full-time marketing manager on campus. She is the one that will interact the most directly with anyone that’s here in SGA or any other committees on campus, as we coordinate events, we definitely look forward to student engagement.
Sepot wants more student input on dining to better the relationship on campus.
“Our number two objective is getting you guys involved in the process. We’re only going to be as successful as we are in our relationship with you as we move forward on campus,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared some calendar dates and dining updates and signing updates and chances at feedback opportunities.
“On Sept. 27, we’re having a local Apple Festival. That will take place in Brown Hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Sept. 3, we’re going to have a Dine With Your Director,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared more information on Dine With Your Director.
“So that’s an event that’s going to involve me, I’m going be tabling in a space of Brown,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared more calendar dates.
“Another event Sept. 15 is a dirty soda event and then on Oct. 2, we will have our first Oktoberfest Supper Club,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared more information on Oktoberfest Supper Club.
“That’s an opportunity for you and a handful of friends to come together in a big community where we have a little bit of a public-private setting where we enjoy a family-style meal with a theme. It’s just a great community outreach program that kind of is just to help bring the student body together,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared a new change in Brown.
“The nutrition station, it’s what we converted into the student choice station. Every Wednesday at lunch, we’re going to put out some different concepts and different types of food that we could feature for the next coming week. There’ll be a chance to just take a little ticket, put it in a fishbowl as to what you would like to see the station be.
Sepot shared that a concept called legacy days is returning to Brown.
If Brown finds it successful they will continue the tradition into the next semester and if not they will look for something new to do and will take opinions at the end of the semester from the student body, according to Sepot.
Sepot shared information on the reaction of Absurd Bird’s inclusion in Highsmith dining.
“Made a big splash of that opening, you got some good press and some bad press, but we own up to it and we can reassure that we’ve went back and trained and retrained those individuals that were involved in something that happened during opening week,” Sepot said.
Sepot answered a question from students on why the meal exchanges don’t seem to work on chicken sandwiches at Absurd Bird.
“Every weekday we will have Taco Tuesdays and Fried Chicken Thursday,” Sepot said.
“We formulate the menu and tried to make everything work as much as we can. You can’t put everything on it because there’s a cost factor involved with it on the back end. So we went with what we thought would be the two most popular items, which have been the tenders and the wings, and went with that,” Sepot said.
Sepot shared that doesn’t mean students’ meal exchanges won’t work for chicken sandwiches in the future.
“That doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to do a limited time offer as we get into the semester,” Sepot said.
Camryn Turner, executive of sustainability, asked about a local produce partnership.
“Well, we do source locally and our produce carrier is out of Asheville. So he produces a lot of times your salad greens and things like that are in season and sourced locally,” Sepot responded.
Turner asked if Brown is looking for new suppliers or producers.
“Are you guys looking for new suppliers or producers?” Turner said.
“Yes and no. So what they would need to do is go through our local providers. So, our providers are vetted by our company,” Sepot said.
Lemings shared what local produce distributor Brown uses.
“Our local produce distributor that we use is called Mountain Foods Asheville.”
After the presentation SGA went through the student input box.
“Please fix elevators, they were just fixed but it’s wobbly and scary and makes noises,” one slip said.
Victor Cabral, vice president of SGA, shared his thoughts.
“I think this should generally also encourage us to think about accessibility on campus. I know that when I first got here, my freshman year, my foot was broken and it was really hard to get around on campus,” Cabral said.
SGA spoke about ways to combat accessibility issues on campus.
Osaro gave some information on steps moving forward with concerns.
“We can contact and bring the office of accessibility here and I can email them and ask them if they can come to a meeting so we can continue this conversation and if the accessibility buttons are not working please let me know and I will let the office of accessibility know, so they can attend to that immediately,” Osaro said.
Another student input was shared saying, “More events like the Rockypalooza.”
Osaro agreed and shared ways to bring more events like that to campus.
“I agree, so I spoke to Dr.Butera about coming to our meetings and I spoke with Lisa and staff council chair, and we talked about culture on campus and Dr.Butera is also concerned with culture on campus and doing more events like Rockypalooza, doing more sports events,” Osaro said.
Osaro added what he’s going to do in the upcoming weeks to push more student activities.
“On Wednesday during our meeting with van Noort, that’s something that me and Dr.Butera will bring up. I do think the administration needs to invest more into student life,” Osaro said.
At the end of the student input box session SGA went to students attending for comments.
Luis Reyes Roman, student at UNCA, shared their thoughts.
“If you want to be more involved with activism just reach out to me, the Student Action Coalition is all about that. We were thinking of BIPOC representation and cultural exchange. Members and faculty and staff plan on organizing some kind of cultural exchange, like food or music or something like that,” Reyes Roman said.
SGA meets every Monday from 5:20 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.
