Access denied

The Student Government Association unanimously approved a resolution to restrict access to three social Web sites in the Dean B. Ellis Library during finals in its Tuesday night meeting.

According to the resolution, students will not be able to access MySpace, Facebook or YouTube in the library during the week of finals and the week before finals. The Web sites will be blocked on all Dean computers other than those in the first floor computer lab.

Some sponsors of the resolution were surprised by the lack of opposition to it. "I was shocked that there weren't any open objections because I completely understand the other side," Senior Sen. Ikemba Balogu said.

Balogu said many students have to wait for access to computers in the library. The competition for such computers will increase as students use computers to study for final exams. The intention of this resolution is to benefit students who need those computers for use in an academically critical time.

Sophomore Sen. James Sawyer said in debate that the bill would also benefit "slackers" by keeping them from losing their focus on studying to social networking Web sites.

Balogu's said, in his opinion, this applied to all students at the university.

The SGA also discussed a resolution giving tardy students a five-minute grace period.

The resolution proposed a five-minute halo period should be added to the student handbook. The addition would prevent teachers from locking students out of their class until five minutes after the class is scheduled to start.

The resolution was tabled until the next meeting on Tuesday, Nov.18.

In other business, Maleigha Light was accepted, without a formal vote, to fill the graduate senator seat. Light is a graduate animal science major of Lepanto.

"I'm very excited, and I hope I can give the best representation possible for the graduate students on campus," Light said.

SGA will next meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, on the eighth floor of the Dean B. Ellis Library.