Student Senate introduced three new bills and discussed other campus business at its meeting Monday.
Treasurer Paul Coates said USA Today contacted him to offer UW-Eau Claire an extra newspaper rack for free. Starting Friday, there will be a newspaper rack in Human Sciences and Services with free copies of The New York Times, Leader-Telegram and USA Today. HSS is currently the only academic building that doesn’t have a rack for the free newspapers.
Student Senate also introduced three bills to be looked at next week.
Finance Commission Director Patrick Martin introduced a bill to revise the Finance Commission’s bylaws. There are just a few minor changes proposed, Martin said, the biggest of which would be to eliminate the current one-year requirement on student organizations before they can receive funding.
Martin said the current rule doesn’t allow students who want to start an organization the ability to actually be able to fully enjoy it.
“With the way things are now,” Martin said, “If I decide I want to start a ‘Star Wars’ club in my freshman year … it would take halfway through my senior year to be able to afford to put on a movie night.”
Organizations Commission Director Jessi Van Natta introduced a bill to recognize the long-existing Organizations Handbook that has never been officially recognized by the Student Senate. Recognizing the handbook will ensure that it’s being updated every year, Van Natta said.
Academic Affairs Director Jacob Bernardy also introduced a bill to revise the differential tuition bylaws, a Blugold Commitment assessment.
Senator April Ross was elected as one of the members of the Student Organization Conduct Committee by ballot vote.
The SOCC, introduced last week with Organizations Commission bylaw changes, is a hearing body for internal organization disputes and now has three of its voting member positions filled with the addition of Ross.
Van Natta said that they are still looking to fill one more voting member positions; they are looking for a student who is neither a Student Senate member nor a member of the preexisting commission.
