At the Student Senate meeting Wednesday, senators voted on two resolutions on last week’s tragedy and a resolution dealing with the movement of the railroad.
Although the meeting began with the approval of Student Body President Schulyer Houser’s budget for 2001-2002 student government allocations, most of the meeting was spent approving resolutions made by the senate in regard to last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.
The letter to the American people was the first resolution passed. The letter, written by multiple senators, expressed the Senate’s sympathy to the American people, their denouncement of the terrorist acts as “cowardly” and “vicious acts of war'” and their pledge of support to President Bush. It will be given to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on October 4.
Courtney Eschbach, an off-campus student senator and senior political science major, will hand deliver the letter to the mayor. Eschbach, who interned this past summer for the Nation Association of Women’s Judges will be in New York for the national conference. Giuliani will attend a reception following the conference and be available to meet guests. Eschbach, whose uncle was in the Pentagon during the time of the attack, said the idea for the letter came after realizing that she and another senator whose parents were in the World Trade Center during the attack had been personally affected by the attacks.
“We realized that if just the sixty of us in the senate already had connections, the campus-wide impact must be phenomenal,” Eschbach said. “As the representative body we felt compelled to speak.”
Along with the letter, the Student Senate also passed the spirit of Aggieland resolution, which encourages Aggies to come together regardless of national origin, religion or creed. The Senate also stated in the resolution their admiration for the “Aggies who exemplify the essence of ‘The Spirit of Aggieland’ by donating money, blood and time to assist Americans in crisis.”
The resolution also states that the senate will not support any actions that contradict that spirit.
Finally, a resolution was passed that stated that the senate will support alternative railroad route 10-2, which runs across the Brazos River into Burleson County. This is the same route that Charles Sippial, Texas A&M Vice President for Administration and member of the metropolitan planning organization policy board, supports.
“I think in the purest sense, that the Burleson County route is the best for Brazos County,” Sippial said. “However, it is also the most expensive route.”
External affairs chair and and sophomore history major Kevin Capps said that although this route is the most expensive at $162 million, the federal government will cover 80 percent of the cost, leaving the remaining 20 percent to be divided by Brazos County, Union Pacific Railroad, Texas A&M, the City of College Station and the City of Bryan.
Capps encouraged the senators to pass the resolution and show support for the 10-2 route.
“We had the opportunity to do this 20 years ago and we passed up on it because we couldn’t come to a decision,” Capps said. “There wasn’t enough support and there was enough people that were pushing against any change at all.”
There are currently four alternatives being looked at to move the railroad, including a no-build. However, Capps said that even though there is a no-build option that does not mean construction will be avoided. He said grade separations, like the one that is currently being built at Wellborn and Joe Route will have to be in place at all major locations where the railroad and road meet.