The car charger bill that passed the ASUU Assembly on Nov. 19 cleared its final test on Thursday’s Senate meeting.

The approved bill allocates $10,000 to fund half of the cost of installing four electric car charging stations in student housing. Author of the bill Rep. Mark Pittman and ASUU president Sam Ortiz negotiated a deal with Commuter Services to fund the remaining half of the cost earlier this month after the bill was pulled from October’s docket at the last minute.

“The bill has been seen as a collaboration between ASUU and Commuter Services,” Pittman, who represents the College of Law, said at the Senate meeting.
Ortiz also answered a question directed toward him during the meeting about his support of the bill.

“With the revisions made [to the bill], I feel more comfortable with it,” Ortiz said.

Some senators were still skeptical of the bill, just as some reps were at the ASUU Assembly meeting earlier in the week. Questions were raised about the quality of the data that had been provided about the demand for the car chargers on campus, since the number of electric cars in parking lots had come from a walk-through count Pittman had done earlier this month.

“I would suggest we don’t pass this bill until we have the proper information,” said Sen. Sierra Debenham of the School of Medicine during the debate.

Debenham also suggested that even if the numbers did support Pittman’s walk-through, the “number of [electric cars] on campus doesn’t necessarily correlate to demand.”

Pittman said because of the break between semesters, the charging station installation will not be finished until the end of January.

The Senate also approved a proposal passed earlier by the Assembly for $25,000 to help fund a child care room in the Alfred Emery Building. The room, which will meet the needs of student mothers with infant children, will be the senior class gift for the 2013-2014 senior class. The project was headed by senior class president Kendahl Melvin, and was presented before the Senate by vice president Sara Seastrand.

The Senate also confirmed the entire 2014 elections committee in one vote Thursday night. The committee, which was picked by elections registrar Taylor Thompson, will judge the rules that Thompson lays out for the upcoming ASUU elections.

Thompson also presented the 2014 Assembly seat apportionment which will realign the 51 Assembly representatives among the U’s colleges based on their student population. The Assembly is required to have three times more members than the Senate, which has one senator per college. The only way the Assembly as a whole can gain seats is for the U to add another college.

The Senate also agreed with the Assembly’s decision last week to pass Joint Resolution Two, which will match the Assembly representatives’ cap salary with their Senate counterparts.

Twenty-two student advisory committee bills were also passed, ranging from $350 to more than $2,650. These SAC bills will fund or reimburse lodging, travel and event registration costs for students to participate in conferences across the nation.

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