Senate met on Thursday to discuss over ten pieces of legislation. This included legislation about suicide prevention training, Financial Affairs Committee eligibility requirements, the SGA’s operating budget for the 2017 fiscal year and other pieces of legislation.

The meeting began with Kirk Walter from the Office of Student Involvement and UA Safe Zone urging the Senate to pass the updated FAC eligibility requirements. He said Safe Zone is “maxed out” and is in need of the funds the bill would provide.

After hearing from Walter, Lita Waggoner’s bill to allow students to voice concerns and address the Senate during meetings was reintroduced after a unanimous favorable ruling from the Rules Committee. Waggoner’s bill was unanimously passed.

Following that, Senate heard two pieces of legislation for the second time that were introduced last week. One was a resolution to encourage at least one executive member of each SOURCE-registered organization to complete the University’s suicide prevention program. The other was an act to ratify the SGA’s operating budget for the 2017 fiscal year. Both pieces of legislation were unanimously passed.

Afterwards Win Watson introduced a bill to renew FAC eligibility requirements. Essentially the bill would strike Chapter 701.1.3 from the Code of Laws, which required organizations to have either ten percent or ten of their active members to undergo Safe Zone training in order to receive FAC funding. The bill would also encourage the University to allocate more resources for Safe Zone and encourage organizations to complete Safe Zone training. The bill was sent to the Finance Committee.

Then Michael Cervino introduced R-12, calling for “Senate transparency and accountability reform” according to the resolution’s title. The resolution urges the TJ Parks, Senate director of communications to use all Senate social media accounts to better inform students about the Senate’s actions. This could include lists of legislation, attendance rosters and even full transcripts of meetings. Parks rose to say that it is important for the Senate to work more closely with the media, particularly The Crimson White in order to be more transparent in providing information to students. The resolution was sent to the Resolutions Committee.

After that Senate discussed Michael Smith’s resolution that would encourage the University to institute in-class election day reminders. The resolution was sent to the Resolution’s Committee.

Senate then heard two resolutions from Speaker of the Senate Lance McCaskey. The first centers on supporting the Black Warrior River cleanup and was unanimously passed. The other acknowledges and supports the Office of Student Involvement’s “The Foundation” program. Both were unanimously passed.

Finally, Senate discussed Smith’s resolution discouraging the use of styrofoam. Smith, a sophomore majoring in economics, said he reached out to the University of Alabama Environmental Council and wanted to put out a resolution applauding their work to decrease the use of styrofoam on campus. 

“The University of Alabama has done a fantastic job, especially in the past few years, [of] getting rid of styrofoam boxes in dinning halls and I think we are only a few organizations and businesses across the campus short of getting styrofoam free,” he said.

Smith also said that going styrofoam free could make the University one of three major universities in the country to go styrofoam free.

Order of Events:

1.) Bill to allow students to voice concerns to the Senate reintroduced, unanimously passed.

2.) Resolution urging at least one executive member of each SOURCE registered organization to complete the suicide prevention training reintroduced, unanimously passed.

3.) Act to ratify the SGA’s operating budget for the 2017 fiscal year reintroduced, passed unanimously.

4.) Resolution supporting the “Roll the Vote” campaign introduced, sent to the Resolutions Committee.

5.) Bill to renew FAC eligibility requirements introduced, sent to the Finance Committee.

6.) Resolution calling for Senate transparency and accountability reform introduced, sent to the Resolutions Committee.

7.) Resolution encouraging in-class election day reminders introduced, sent to the Resolutions Committee.

8.) Resolution supporting the Black Warrior River cleanup introduced, unanimously passed.

9.) Resolution “acknowledging and commending The SOURCE and the Office of Student Involvement for ‘The Foundation’ program” introduced, unanimously passed.

10.) Resolution discouraging the use of styrofoam introduced, sent to the Resolutions Committee and the Student Affairs Committee.