After a short BUC Fund meeting during Tuesday’s meeting, the Student Government Association was able to focus on the numerous pieces of legislation that have been tabled the past few weeks.
The BUC Fund committee brought up two applications: the Pan-Hellenic Council received the fully requested amount of $3,000, and the Student Photography Association received $0 out of the requested $2,405 dollars.
The current amount left in BUC Fund is $1,051 on campus and $1,081 off campus. One last meeting remains for BUC Fund this semester.
The Senate moved its focus to several pieces of legislation afterward, passing several pieces unanimously on repairing the parking space counter at the parking garage, including emergency contact and public safety’s phone numbers on the back of student ID’s, implementing a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program and extending library textbook checkout to four hours instead of two.
A piece of legislation that prompts the university to put feminine hygiene products back into female and gender-neutral restrooms presented certain issues based on wording.
“We as a committee supported the piece–why should we hold that back from any woman–but we were unsure as to why the machines are not being filled or supplied when they’re there,” Sen. Molly Jones said. “We’re not sure if this was a financial reason, or was there no one to fill it?”
The Student Affairs Committee also felt that the word “discrimination” was not well placed in the piece.
“We thought it was a little harsh,” Jones said. “It’s not necessarily discrimination, we thought, but maybe there were financial reasons rather than because they’re products for women; the word discrimination is a strong word.”
Sen. Tori Neal’s response was that the word felt necessary since the lack of products affects women only.
“I don’t think it’s a reason to fail the piece; if a woman starts her period earlier, it shouldn’t be ‘That’s too bad, gotta go home or skip class because you don’t have access,'” Neal said. “We tried to get in contact with people and ask why they stopped filling the dispensers, because we are paying $300 for each machine; women are paying for it, so why isn’t it being filled?”
Parliamentarian Nathan Farnor brought up that he has heard many females–especially in the library–complain about the machines not being filled; he feels they should be removed if they’re not being utilized.
“They’ve been out of order since I’ve been here, which was three years ago,” Sen. Sydney Crowder said. “I feel like this is a more permanent band-aid for them being out of order.”
The legislation was amended during the meeting with the word “discrimination” removed. It was then deemed emergency legislation to have Senate vote immediately and was passed.
