By VALERIE METREJEAN

Staff Writer

The Student Government Association is in the process of funding two projects that will improve kitchens in the residence halls and sidewalks behind Carson Taylor Hall.

This past Tuesday was the final meeting for the 2004-2005 SGA members. The new SGA members will meet next Tuesday and will decide on the second of the two campus improvement projects.

"I think these two projects are very good examples of what the SGA can do when students voice their concerns and senators take action," Lindsay Mencacci, SGA president-elect and a senior biology major, said.

Mencacci said the SGA decided to get involved after receiving a letter from a student unhappy with kitchens in Cottingham Residence Hall.

"The stove works, but we don't have an oven or microwave," Daniel Ray, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said. "We are limited in cooking because we have between a hundred students and there is only one available stove that works."

Ray is excited about the improvements to be made and the accessibility that it will increase.

Brandon Davis, a sophomore engineering major and SGA member, contacted David Smith, the coordinator for housing, about the project. Smith confirmed the plan which housing had already begun working.

Kimberly Ludwig, current SGA president and a senior business management and entrepreneurship major, said the kitchens in the all the residence halls can stand to be improved.

"Some kitchens will be gutted, but others just need a little remodeling," Ludwig said. She said the stoves in several residence halls technically work, but do not heat properly.

Mencacci said the SGA has allocated $3,000 per quarter for this project which should provide for three kitchens which housing estimated to cost $1,000 per kitchen.

"The first kitchen to be renovated will probably be in Cottingham [Residence Hall] because that is where the complaint was first received from," Mencacci said.

She also said housing has funds for the project, as well, that will go to renovate the kitchens.

"The SGA has a special project fund that can be used for plans that have a permanent use for students."

This special project fund is also voting on whether or not to spend approximately $2000 to add sidewalks behind Carson Taylor.

"So many people walk behind Carson Taylor to go through the two back doors but when it gets muddy back there, it is heinous," Kristy Stephens, senior class president and senior biology major, said.

Stephens said she wrote a bill that will be voted on in the next meeting to put in two sidewalks leading from the two different back doors stretching to the parking lot where Kidd Residence Hall used to be.