The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate voted last night to recommend to Penn State administrators that the university look at alternative methods of alerting students about snow delays and cancellations.

Specifically, Senate recommended the university publicize a phone number already in existence, which students and employees can call to hear the status of closings or delays. They also recommended the university send an e-mail message to students with such notices.

But after the meeting, Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said technical issues make both the e-mail and phone options impractical.

"It's not practical that we could send out 55,000 e-mail messages in half an hour," he said.

Typically, when an e-mail is sent to that many people, the university sends it overnight and allows it to be delivered over the course of several hours, he said.

Mahon said the phone system, similarly, could not handle a very high volume of calls.

"You couldn't build a system for any reasonable amount of money that could handle 55,000 phone calls in a half an hour window," he said.

He said students can tune to local television and radio stations, or visit the WPSU Web site, www.wpsu.psu.edu.

Senate also devoted much of last night's meeting to handling USG-related affairs, including executive cabinet appointments and changes to the Senate budget.

Senators accepted the appointment of Kyle Metzgar as governmental affairs director.

USG President Galen Foulke said Metzgar would serve two roles. Metzgar will keep Foulke up to date on government issues on a local and state level, as well as work on lobbying efforts to raise appropriations for the university.

Metzgar said he intended to begin lobbying Harrisburg politicians in mid-November after election results are announced.

Cesar Batres was also approved as USG's new business director. Batres, originally from Honduras, told senators of his experience as chief of protocol for the president of Honduras.

"I made sure his speeches were edited," he said, adding that his duties included attending to the president's appearance and matters of social etiquette during state visits.

Town Sen. Diana Maxham said Batres would do well in his duties, which would include arranging details such as meeting spaces.

"That's pretty much what he did for the country of Honduras," she said, laughing.

East Halls Sen. Matt Ritsko and Town Halls Sen. Zach Merritt introduced the "Fiscal Responsibility Act," which calls on the Senate to set a minimum balance for their budget, in addition to a number of other constraints. Senate approved the act.