Three business students voiced their issues with Wesleyan’s parking lots at Thursday’s Student Government Association general business meeting.

Karen Duarte-Escobar, Le Le Huynh and Jonathan Dermott stood up in front of SGA, Wesleyan’s Public Safety Supervisors Kevin Rodricks and Anthony Garcia and Facilities Operations Coordinator Alyssa Cavitt.

“As business school students, we mostly deal with parking lots U and E. Starting with parking lot U, there is only one entrance for student parking, and there are also no arrows in which direction you need to go in,” Duarte-Escobar said.

Duarte-Escobar said one issue is finding parking, and then not being able to identify spaces because the paint has worn off.

“The parking lots are in rough shape,” she said. “There are holes, and it is really hard to drive on, especially the U parking lot. There is only one entrance to go in and out, so obviously that causes accidents. Also, your view is blocked because there are cars parked on the street.”

In parking lot U, she said there are no lights or cameras, which makes driving at night hard and unsafe.

Dermott said that last semester he lost two tires because of Wesleyan’s parking lots.

“More often than not, there is a lot of broken glass,” he said. “I have seen one or two nails. If we could get a lot of debris cleared out of the parking lot it would help.” .

SGA Elizabeth and OC Hall Representative Lukian Sherementa said that last semester the associate justices and Chief Justice Zack Lanham were dealing with some parking ticket appeals, because it was unclear what part of the lot was designed for students near West Express Eatery.

Garcia said new parking signs have been ordered that will guide students to where they can park on campus. As for the other issues, he said his department will be working with facilities to see what they can do.

“Of course, a lot of it has to do with budgeting and trying to keep these parking lots up to date as much as we can,” Garcia said. “We are trying to update everything as we move forward.”

Cavitt said that last year facilities was hoping to get several lots repainted, but they were unable to due to the budget.

“We are always trying to get those parking lots updated and making sure communication is clear,” Cavitt said. “Going back to the debris, I will be putting in a work order to get Lot E gone over to make sure that nails and stuff are picked up.”

During the meeting, SGA Secretary Alison Baron presented a resolution which asks the school to plant a tree for every tree that is cut down.

“Whereas, faculty, staff, and students of Texas Wesleyan University were upset to see the trees outside of the Brown-Lupton Building cut down over the Winter beak,” Baron read the resolution. “Whereas, the Student Government Association of the University has made it its mission to focus on sustainability and environmental improvements this year.”

Baron said the trees would benefit the campus in many ways including reducing the campus’ carbon footprint.

Cavitt said facilities does not currently have a response to the resolution, but she will be taking it to others in Facilities Operations.

“I do love the trees,” she said.

SGA Vice President Lynzie Moore presented the “Water Bottle Station Bill Spring 2019” which asked for $5,000. The bill was passed.

“Whereas, Texas Wesleyan’s Student Government Association is making a conscious effort towards sustainability around campus and for the overall state of the environment,” Moore read the bill. “Whereas, students have expressed the need for more water bottle filling stations to be installed around campus in order to produce less plastic waste.”

The water bottle stations will be placed in McFadden Science Center and the Eunice and James L. West Library.

Student Lexi Barlow announced at the meeting that she is hosting a book drive with Wesleyan’s marketing team and asked SGA if they would put their name on the event to attract a wider audience. The book drive will take place from Feb. 8 to March 1 and the books will be donated to three elementary schools in the Wesleyan community.

“I have spoken with the principals and librarians from those schools, and they are all extremely grateful for the opportunity because most of them do have limited resources with books, and their books are already used and old,” Barlow said.

Barlow said she does not need funding from SGA; she just needs its support.

“Really all I need is your permission to be able to use your name on the actual flyer,” she said. “I am going to need probably some help with sorting through the books, checking quality and making sure they are appropriate, divvying them up for all three schools and then transporting the books.”

SGA agreed to the proposal.

During the meeting, SGA President Alyssa Hutchinson presented a bill which was passed for an SGA Information Forum at the end of the year that would inform students on what SGA has done for the campus this year. The bill asked for $250 for food, drinks and supplies for the event.

“In the past, people are like, ‘Who the heck are SGA?’ They don’t really know what we do, and they don’t really know that their money funds us,” she said. “Then it kind of ends up being the ‘Good ‘Ole Boys Club’ where the same people are feeding into the same thing.”

Hutchinson said that too often only one person runs for an SGA position, and it is sad because SGA represents the entire student body, but they are only reaching 10 percent of it.

“We thought it would be great if at the end of the year we have a presentation of everything that we have done for students,” she said. “It is also great for accountability.”

SGA general business meetings are held at 3 p.m. every Friday in the SGA Chambers located in the Sid W. Richardson Center.