Hill Hall Senator Chris Schumacher is sick and tired of seeing his hall's main lounge the way it is.

"The carpet is from 1965," said Schumacher. "I think LBJ was president when it was put in."

His residence hall's main lounge is old and in disrepair.

The actual rooms of the dormitory have been renovated recently. Both the men's and the women's side of the dorm received new furniture in the summers of 2002 and 2003.

But Schumacher says that isn't enough.

"The rooms are nice, but the lounges need a lot of work," Schumacher said.

After hearing several complaints from students living in Hill, Schumacher passed out petition forms to floor representatives, who then went and got the signatures of the residents. They obtained over 200 signatures, which Schumacher felt was enough to back a proposal to Associated Students of Seattle Pacific (ASSP). He and Matthew Schuh, the Moyer Hall senator, sponsored an initiative to have the student senate support the efforts of the Hill Hall residents.

What was unique about this proposal was that no amount of money was named. According to Schumacher, the costs will be worked out in a committee in the near future.

"A resolution like this hasn't been done before," said Schumacher. "It's not common to have a resolution like this not asking for money."

He said that he did not want ASSP to incur the cost of renovation and there was no money for such a project in the ASSP budget.

The idea that Hill Hall's main lounge is a shared space was a main point of Schumacher's proposal.

"It is one of the most rented and most used spaces on campus ... one of the major hubs in the SPU community," reads the proposal.

The proposal also mentioned several groups that had used Hill Hall's main lounge recently. Included on the list were Campus Ministries, the Falconettes, the King County Election Board and the Young Alumni Association.

Last week in the ASSP Senate meeting, Schumacher's proposal was passed to endorse and support the Hill Hall residents. There was much debate and deliberation before the vote. Senators expressed concern about cost and the timing of the proposal. Schumacher defended his proposal, saying that this was only the first step in a larger process.

Student reaction to the proposal's passing was varied.

Brian Hanson, the Associated Undergraduate Students of Business and Economics president, suggested that ASSP approved the proposal too quickly.

"In my experience, to make a proposal without money, to have ASSP put their stamp on a project like this, is wrong," Hanson said. "You usually want some sort of plan for spending before approving this type of resolution."

Hanson spoke at some length, saying that he thought it was an "inappropriate beginning step" for the project.

Rebecca Steiner, freshman and resident of 2nd Hill, said she thinks her main lounge needs the renovation.

"It's a public place that people don't respect, so it's trashed," Steiner said. "If the lounge was in better shape, I think more people would spend time in there."

Matthew Gebhart, a sophomore from 4th Ashton disagreed.

"I'm pretty angry, spitting angry," he said. "That's ridiculous; they [Hill Hall] just got new furniture, what, like a year ago?"

Cory Shepherd, a freshman, is a floor representative in Ashton Hall. He said he thought that ASSP should look at all of the dorms before backing one of them.

"A lot of people in last week's hall council said they were dissatisfied with the state of our lounge," he said. "People would use it more if it were nicer."

Schumacher repeatedly said that he would support any other residence hall proposal having to do with renovation.

"I've been working on this all quarter, so I really hope something will happen," said Schumacher.

He said that the next step in the renovation process has to do with ASSP President Mike Kitson. He will take the concerns of the residence hall to Residence Life.

"We're in the process," said Schumacher. "I'm not quite sure how it will go from here."