The Student Government Association (SGA) welcomed SUPD Chief Patrick Taylor at its first public meeting of the semester last Thursday. Taylor took over the reins as chief of the university’s police department on Sept. 5.

Shippensburg is not unfamiliar to Taylor, who had previously worked for SUPD from 2002 to 2020. For the past three and a half years he was employed by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s office. 

Speaking about his approach as chief, Taylor said, “I want to have an open-door policy. I want people to be able to come if they have issues, if they have questions, if they have concerns. I want them to be able to come and address one of the supervisors at the police department.”

Taylor spoke about developing a “call before you park” campaign, asking visitors and those unfamiliar with campus to call and ask any questions before risking a ticket. He said the department is also looking at reformatting signs and making parking rules clearer. 

Members of SGA and the audience spoke with Taylor, who responded to various questions about transparency, accessibility, diversity and safety.

Elections for the 11 vacant SGA positions are underway. Only two petitions were received by the Tuesday, Sept. 12 deadline, which means write-in candidates have good chances of filling the open seats. Write-in candidates are held to the same campaigning guidelines but do not appear on the ballot and their names must be entered manually.

The two candidates who submitted petitions will be giving speeches in McFeely’s Coffeehouse (CUB Ground Floor) Thursday, Sept. 21. Students are encouraged to attend and ask questions. Voting will occur September 25–29.

In his opening remarks, SGA President Harun Pacavar kicked off what he hopes to be a productive year: “We are very much looking forward to starting things fresh and making sure we as a student organization are hearing the voices of you all and doing everything in our power to make sure we can address any issues that are brought before us,” Pacavar said.

Members of the Executive Leadership Committee hoped committees would be operational by the end of September. Committees are bodies within SGA designed to turn student concerns and ideas into actionable policies and events. 

Responding to a question about the removal of the self-checkout kiosk in the CUB convenience store, SGA Advisor Lorie Davis indicated the removal was due to retail theft becoming an issue in the store. 

According to Pacavar, the ELC has worked over the summer to revise the SGA constitution. These changes were approved unanimously during the meeting and will be released to the student body at least a week prior to approval. 

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