SGA President Patrick Grace has confirmed a few major developments for Lipscomb students, including a potential breakthrough in the long-awaited possibility of off-campus dining.

To start, Grace confirmed that there will indeed be a spring concert taking place this semester.

“We have a spring concert. It should be in the middle of March,” Grace said. “We’ve got a band kind of in agreement in principle.”

Grace says that SGA will make an announcement next week as to who will be playing as soon as it’s set in stone.

The spring concert has long been a successful tradition at Lipscomb, with singer-songwriter Mat Kearney headlining the show last spring.

Alongside the spring concert, the SGA will help sponsor a new edition of Tokens, a show founded by campus’ Dr. Lee Camp on March 7 in Alumni Auditorium. SGA is planning to release tickets for free to the student body.

Grace described the show as “sort of a theological, variety, folk music radio broadcast.”

SGA will be holding auditions for a student act to play during the show on Friday, Feb. 15, in the afternoon. The tryouts will be held in Ward Hall.

“I’m looking forward to [the auditions] because we’ve got some real talent on campus,” Grace said.

Off-campus meal plan in negotiations, could be ready for fall semester

The SGA president said he and Dr. Scott McDowell,Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Campus Life, have been in negotiations with Sodexo and human resources to potentially create a plan that would allow for Lipscomb students to use their dining plan at off-campus locations.

Grace said he has a level of confidence in the fact that the first locations in an off-campus meal plan would be available by the fall.

“I am pretty hopeful,” said Grace about the possibility of off-campus dining being ready.

“We seem to have gotten the ball rolling from an administrative standpoint,” Grace said. “I think everybody’s kind of in agreement that this is something that we all kind of want to commit to, and nobody’s really holding it up, which is just great.

“I think everybody realizes [off-campus dining] is something that everybody wins from. The meal plans become better, the students get a better service and there shouldn’t be a loss of money on anybody’s part. And then, the local businesses of Nashville get served by having a better student population.”

Sodexo currently has a plan that allows for an off-campus meal plan that works with franchise restaurants in a partnership with the dining company. Grace says that this option is likely the easiest to adapt and that the franchises would be evaluated on a ‘case-by-case basis’.

“That meal option is probably the most seamless transition that we can take,” Grace said.

If the campus itself was to open up a private meal plan option, Grace said it would have to be a contract-by-contract situation.

“We’re still in the process of deciding whether we’re going to deal with [off-campus dining] privately or if we’ll deal with it through Sodexo’s partnerships. But if we do it privately, you can be assured we’re going to look at the places where students eat,” Grace said. “We’re going to look at the places across the street. We’re going to look at the places in Green Hills.”

Grace recommends that if students have an idea of where campus should look into when it comes to off-campus dining locations, they should contact the SGA email at sga.lipscomb.edu.

The university said in a statement that they “continually looks for ways to improve the campus experience for its students. University officials are in the preliminary discussion stage about the possibility of enhancements to the dining option packages.”

While nothing is set in stone, Grace said he’s very hopeful that some sort of plan will be ready to go by the fall.

Grace also announces campus ministry and recycling updates

Grace said that he is sure of the fact that the Campus Ministry department is planning another ‘Holy Week’-type event that will take place around the time of Good Friday (akin to last year’s events). Grace said that students should expect a few new activities planned for this year’s version.

“I know they’ve got some new ideas that we’ve been able to finance on their part,” said Grace.

The funding for recycling bins across campus may also be seeing some changes.

Grace said that SGA has been funding campus’ recycling program for the past two years, and the group wishes that campus would pick up the bill.

“We’re trying to kind of hand the ball off to the department of sustainability, and really, the campus as a whole needs to pay for it. They need to equip the sustainability department with the tools they need to really just get a better product out there – a more comprehensive recycling plan. There are some gaps on campus that need to be fixed,” Grace said. “I’m hopeful that recycling will get better in the future.”

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