THE MEETING:
The ASUO met Wednesday night to discuss a $5,779 proposal from Assault Prevention Service, to hear the ASUO Executive update and to vote in new Senate officers.
THE DECISION:
The Senate approved the $5,779 request from APS. The bulk of the request, which came out of the over-realized fund, pays for two new dispatchers to drive vans to Stadium Park Apartments at a more regular interval. The request also includes money for gas and maintenance of the APS vans, which came out of the Senate surplus.
Senator Alex McCafferty was elected as Senate President, barely edging out Carina Miller for the position. McCafferty is replacing Noor Rajabzadeh.
A similar situation played out for the position of Senate Vice President, which was won by Emma Kallaway. Kallaway won the position from the incumbent vice president Nick Schultz in another close race.
The following students all ran uncontested and were elected: Nathan Perley to Treasurer, Katie Jones to Ombudsman, and Susan Giacomelli to Academic Chair.
THE TENSION:
Though the passing of the APS funding request was unanimous, nearly every senator at the meeting expressed concerns that student funds were needed to aide APS in serving Stadium Park in the first place.
Due to APS policies and available dispatchers, the program can only provide rides for 15 students to and from Stadium Park each evening.
Though the office of Student Life provided $4,000 in funding to help the program, the general consensus among senators was that the administration should have provided more.
The $4,379 APS requested for more dispatchers was taken from the over-realized fund, piggybacked onto last week’s mass of special requests.
The remaining $1,400, split between gas and maintenance, was taken from Senate surplus funds.
WHAT’S NEXT:
Next week’s meeting will see elections to Senate Internal Review Committees, which will include the creation of new committees Outreach, Ethics and Efficiency.
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