The Associated Student Government considered two bills during their Oct. 12 general assembly meeting.
The first of these bills concerned an allocation from the Student-Controlled Reserve Fund to send 37 students from the Colorado Mesa University music education club to the Colorado Music Education Association Clinic and Conference in January. The conference is one the music education club has attended annually in the past. Presenters asked for $1816 to be allocated from SCRF to cover approximately half the cost of the trip, with costs referring to conference registration fees, hotel and gas reimbursement.
Senator Jeff Vela argued in favor of the bill, which passed through the Fee Allocation Committee on Monday easily and unanimously. Vela called supporting the bill a “no-brainer,” since the decision would affect not only the 37 students on the trip, but all those who benefit from the teaching methods and strategies that students will learn at the conference.
The bill passed unanimously without any abstentions.
The second bill concerned an allocation from the transportation budget to send donations from the Montrose Campus EMT students’ drive for victims of Hurricane Harvey. According to presenters, the program has already shipped 650 backpacks to the four elementary schools they are sponsoring, with these costs being covered by a donation from US Bank and money from their own pockets. The students asked for $1000 to cover the remaining shipping costs of 650 backpacks, five boxes of new clothing and nine boxes of supplies. The costs were estimated at the 60 percent discount the students are receiving from Teletech.
Several senators argued in favor of this bill, among them Senator Olivia Van Gundy.
“I really appreciated how they showed all the lengths they went to, to make this work [… ] It’s not like they instantly ran to us. They looked for other solutions,” Van Gundy said.
The bill was passed unanimously and without any abstentions.
During his report, President Ben Linzey also discussed the one vacant committee spot yet to be filled, a seat on the transit committee. Linzey felt the committee was extremely important, especially in light of the student on a bike who was hit by a car while crossing 12th Street earlier that day. This is the second such incident since Sept. 25.
“I think just re-evaluating what we offer students in terms of signage [and] also improving bike culture on campus,” Linzey said in regard to the value of this committee and its relevance.
During her report, ASG Vice President Gabby Gile discussed one of her recent projects to improve student attendance at campus events, which is the creation of a consolidated campus-wide calendar, as well as the consolidation or improvement to some of CMU’s social media accounts. Both of the issues were also brought to light in past issues of The Criterion, in an editorial and an opinion piece.
“Helping the school be transparent as well and all of our organizations is also super important,” Gile said.
This week, ASG also saw three of its senators step down: Senator Cody Armstrong, Senator Brody Anderson and Senator Jordan Chavez. The resignations were all for personal reasons, being respectively an internship opportunity, an off-campus job that was inflexible and other commitments that were taking too much time, according to Linzey, who discussed this after the meeting.
