Senators pass four motions at meeting

Student Senate took the time Monday night to bring several new motions to the table, without the presence of President Joe Eggers or Vice President Derek Brandt.

A member from the Black Student Union (BSU) addressed Student Senate during an open forum in order to have a student’s voice heard on a matter concerning a diversity conference held March 30-April 1.

Due to the budget cuts occurring over the past two years, groups like BSU and the Asian American Student Association (AASA) are unable to fund the transportation and lodging costs for events like the upcoming Building Unity Conference held at UW-Parkside.

“We went last year and would like to go this year,” BSU President Anthony Anderson said. “We want to do good things, and this is a good opportunity for us.”

The motion was presented to Senate by Finance Director Adam Koski. It requested “that up to $3,000 for lodging and transportation of the participants to the conference be allocated from the Shared Governance Account,” according to the Student Senate agenda.

The motion passed by a plurality oral vote.

Another motion brought to the table concerned winter weather temperatures and the safety of students.

Presented by Student Affairs and Academic Services Director Dan Scott, and backed by the Student Affairs and Academic Services group as a whole, the Student Senate was asked to pass a motion for classes to be canceled when the temperature or wind chill in River Falls reached minus 30 degrees or lower.

The motion passed, and a friendly amendment was added to the agenda to have the motion sent to not only the chancellor, but all pertinent heads of academics, including department chairs and deans of colleges.

Other Senate News

• Natalie Hagberg, Leadership Development and Programming Board (LDPB) chair introduced a motion to approve the Segregated University Fee allocations. Charts listing detailed descriptions of on-campus organizations and the amounts LDPB has approved to provide them were given to every member of Student Senate for review. The motion will be voted on at next week’s meeting.
• The Vagina Monologues College Campaign has “become a tradition in River Falls that benefits the students,” according to a motion presented by Woman’s Initiatives Director Lindsay Exworthy. She requested funding for supplies and fees to keep the tradition going this year. The cost for ticket sales and chocolate vagina pops were listed on the motion showing a total request of $383.79. Though the motion was only introduced Tuesday, the funding is already coming out of individual student’s pockets so it was also voted on and approved. The quick vote caused a suspension of bylaws during this motion. The bylaws were reinstated once the matter of business was completed.
• Employee salaries in the UW System are not on par with salaries at other universities, Senator Craig Witte said. He brought a motion to support state funding of an annual salary increase of 5.23 percent for UW System faculty and staff. The motion passed with a plurality oral vote.