UPDATED 11:17 P.M. ET, Sun September 27, 2020.
Editor’s note: Several updates were made to help with clarification. Originally, the name of the senator who proposed the Nov. 3 bill was not stated. It was in fact Sen. Ethan Roberts. The idea to provide free femimine products on campus was not spearheaded by President Adam Scherman, but was proposed by Vice President of Finance, MacKenzie Lange, Sen. Aubri Jones, Speaker of the Senate, Bree Chambers, and supported by Vice President Michelle Trudeau.
Student government has been busy passing some new bills and developing plans for this semester.
Sept. 20, was the day that new senators were sworn into student government. Now that senate seats are filled and organized, the government body is ready to put new bills into action.
Adam Scherman, fourth-year marketing major and president of student government, talked about the plans for the student government this fall.
Scherman mentioned the “all-in challenge,” which is a competition between all the OAC schools to see who can get the most students to vote.
The plan for taking the gold is to partner with College Democrats and College Republicans to have a watch party of the election. The idea here is to bring people together, regardless of political views.
It was proposed that blankets could be purchased and given out to students, so that they can watch the election outside. This even goes to the extent of purchasing a projector screen, like the ones used for the Knives Out and Onward showings last semester. However, none of these major plans have been put into production yet.
Scherman said, “We have so many common traits and common things that it’s like, why do political views get in our way?”
This event is still in the planning stages at the moment.
Student government also discussed the availability of free feminine products on campus. There are free condoms available in the Health and Wellness Center, however, there are not free tampons and pads available. In an executive board meeting, Vice President of Finance, MacKenzie Lange proposed this idea. At the time, Sen. Aubri Jones and Speaker of the Senate, Bree Chambers, were actually drafting up a bill for this initiative. This was then supplemented by resources provided by Vice President Michelle Trudeau.
“This is something we really want to push for the University to step up and do,” Scherman said.
After searching for the budget, Scherman dove into what student government is actually capable of paying for at the time of writing this story. A gift card giveaway for students to test their constitution knowledge was the first thing that the student government approved spending for this semester.
Intramural sports is something that the student government wants to bring back to its former glory as well. Scherman said that they were planning on having a sports management internship instead of the minimum wage positions. That way those interns can control the intramural leagues including marketing and planning it.
Ethan Browning, a second-year senator and biology/political science major, talked about other important plans for Capital this semester.
One is to allow classes to be held online and asynchronously on Nov. 3 to allow students more time to be able to vote in the upcoming election. This was a bill written by Sen. Ethan Roberts.
With the bill now passed, it will be up to professors to require or not require students to attend class on Nov. 3 to allow for more time to vote.
Another idea is in regards to the campus ecosystem. There is currently a bill for installing bird feeders around campus to help sustain the local nature quality.
If this is passed, there will be multiple bird feeders installed around campus, and student government will be in charge of maintaining them, as well as refilling the feed.
In addition, Bree Chambers, third-year art therapy major, and the speaker of the senate, talked about the blue light bill that was passed last semester.
The blue lights have yet to be installed. Chambers said the reason for this is that after the student government passed the bill, it then went to a safety committee that had to approve the bill for logistical reasons. The identities of the safety committee members was not provided at this time.
“I have not been able to find anything on a directory or website that even indicates who these people are,” Chambers said.
There was a meeting May 27, however, there has not been a follow up regarding the blue lights.
There is still a possibility that it could be brought back up. Chambers said, “Anything is possible, because silence isn’t yes and it isn’t no.”
