Taylor Hanigosky
tmh004@marietta.edu
The Hermann Bowl will be getting a toasty new addition this semester, thanks to unused funds from the Student Government Association’s fall 2014 budget.
As part of its new service and philanthropy initiative, SGA will finance and build a fire pit and seating area in the field adjacent to the freshmen-housing quad. The project is expected to cost less than $1,000 and will utilize recycled materials and donated labor from SGA representatives.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin when the winter weather breaks, according to SGA President Taylor Myers. Myers is hopeful the pit will be available for use during Senior Send Off, the days following final exams that were previously known as Senior Week.
The primary goal of the project is to make the campus more attractive to prospective students, in addition to offering a fun, new venue for campus events, Myers said.
“When enrollment improves, our budget improves,” he said. “And when our campus’ budget improves, everyone benefits.”
The project was also conceived as a way to utilize unspent money from SGA’s budget that would otherwise go to waste. It is also a response to the ongoing problem of student organizations failing to spend their appropriated funds from SGA, Myers said. Student organizations can participate in the appropriations process to receive money from SGA to use throughout the semester. If that money is not spent by the final day of classes, the student organization no longer has access to it, and SGA must either spend the money before the end of the fiscal year, or surrender it back to the college.
“Part of the reason our student organizations struggle to spend their money is because more is always requested than we have to distribute, so then we make cuts,” Myers said. “When events are partially funded, they are less likely to happen at all, and the appropriated money doesn’t get spent. We hope by strategically investing in sustainable projects like this, we can ultimately request our budget to grow.”
Mark Theobald, the grounds supervisor for the Physical Plant, designed the fire pit several years ago. The new fire pit will be more attractive and safer than the ring that is currently used for fires in the Hermann Bowl.
“It will be nice to get better use out of the area, and make it more attractive for students and community members passing by,” Theobald said. “[The pit] will give students a new place to hold outdoor activities.”
Myers said the fire pit can be used by all registered student organizations to host social events or hold outdoor meetings. Procedures for using the fire pit once it is completed will be the same as other venues on campus. Student organizations will need to fill out an event notification form with the Office of Campus Involvement, as well as notify the Marietta College Police Department and the Physical Plant of its use for safety reasons.
