Funding for Geek Week, Alternative Spring Break and electric car chargers were discussed at ASUU’s joint Senate and Assembly meeting last week.
The anticipated bill to fund electric car chargers was tabled until December’s Assembly and Senate meetings. ASUU president Sam Ortiz, a senior in social work, said the bill was pushed back in order to hammer out some of the details but said that he expects it to pass next month, though it may look different than originally planned.
“The bill was tabled because more research is needed before we can move forward,” Ortiz said. “A specific plan of implementation has been requested as well.”
Vice president Sara Seastrand a senior in political science, agreed with Ortiz in an email earlier this week saying that she is optimistic that an agreement can be made.
“I hope that we can all work together to form sustainable initiatives that are well-planned and that unite various resources on campus for students,” Seastrand said.
The Senate voted to fund Geek Week, during which the Marriott Library will be open 24 hours during the week before finals. The funding will provide students with access to school supplies, yoga sessions to help alleviate stress, doughnuts and pizza.
The Senate also voted to fund the Alternative Spring Breaks bill that the Assembly voted to fund earlier in the week. Similar to the Alternative Fall Breaks program, the Spring Break program sends students to various locations in the western half of the country to do volunteer work. The funding will allow more than 140 students to receive $35 each to travel to one of the 13 locations in seven different states and one Canadian province. The rest of the cost will still total in the hundreds for students to attend.
The Senate also confirmed Thomas Pedersen as a new Supreme Court member and Kelsey Paulding as associate director of sustainability.
The Senate also passed bills to fund grad students’ trips to present their work at conferences associated with their field.