Daily Skiff

Live music, hotdogs and bright blue shirts. That was the setting at the second annual Improve TCU Day campaign Feb. 18.

Justin Brown, senior psychology major, chairman of the Student Relations Committee and coordinator of Improve TCU Day, said Student Government Association representatives received more than 1,000 ideas from students on potential ways to improve their college experience.

Students submitted suggestions in person to SGA representatives, who wore blue shirts, and also on the dialogue boards in the University Recreation Center and Market Square.

Myra Mills, junior music education major and Fine Arts Representative to the House of Student Representatives, attached a 20-foot banner to the construction fence behind Frog Fountain where many students wrote ideas directly on it.

The ideas SGA representatives received ranged from outlandish, like a moving walkway from Worth Hills to the Brown-Lupton University Union, to the more practical, like limiting motorized carts on the walkways during passing periods, Mills said.

Student Body Vice President Matt Dietrichson, a sophomore political science major, said the goals of Improve TCU Day were to allow students to give suggestions on ways to make TCU a better place and to put a face with their representatives.

"It was a great event that hopefully can be made into a bigger event," Dietrichson said.

Brown said that parking, meal plan issues and tuition costs topped the list both this year and last. Many students brought up the new issue of sustainability as a major concern, he said.

"Most of the substantive ideas involved green or stainability issues like water conservation, a food compost system and recycling," Brown said.

Representatives in the House have started the task of responding to the suggestions that included contact information on them, Brown said.

Mills said Improve TCU Day grew substantially in its second year on campus.

"The goal was the same, but the support for it increased this year," Mills said.

Brown said the next Improve TCU Day will be held this fall and depending on the amount of student feedback, it will be held every semester thereafter to accommodate the changing needs of the student body.

Next semester, SGA members will attempt to man tables in every college in order to better represent their constituents, Brown said.

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