The senators met last night for the first time after break, each with a high anticipation for the night’s agenda: tuition. With minds set on the student population at the University of Wyoming, ASUW encouraged their fellow colleagues to support and speak on behalf of their constituents. The meeting began as normal.
-President Brett Kahler spoke about his agenda from last week along with his current schedule for this week. He set up delegation during a trip to China last week to discuss with the university there about the collaboration between them and the University of Wyoming.
– Thursday and Friday, the Board of Trustees will continue to discuss the increase in tuition and fees for the 2014-2015 school year.
-The Student Memorial Project is still underway. Kahler will present the design of the project next meeting.
-RSO funding board passed three requests. The first was in the amount of $886 to the Eco-Chic Fashion show on April 11 in the Visual Arts lobby. Family and Consumer Science department encourage participants to create sustainable style garments and jewelry to submit. The second request granted $2,845 to Cardinal P for their philanthropy work for the Juvenile Diabetes foundation to raise money for research and educate students. The final request gave $2,000 to the Students of America Studies event on April 22 to bring in a guest speaker to discuss art in US culture.
-The meeting them proceeded into discussion over bill #2421 on ASUW support for tuition increases to benefit faculty salaries. The senate was split in this decision, but ended with a fail vote on the increase next year. Senator Messner clarified the reason for a fail vote during discussion. “The number one priority is that students need to be put first. Most choose this university due to low costs of tuition,” Messner said. “Many will be forced to leave if raised because the scholarships won’t change.” Other senators believed that the faculty pay would actually benefit students indirectly.
-Bill #2422 was presented afterwards for ASUW support on mandatory student fee raise for athletics and health among other fees. The senators debated over the legislation and came to a pass vote on the bill. They agreed that although the main issue was athletics in the discussion, that student athletes and students are all under the constituency that ASUW is elected to represent and therefore should be treated equally.
Sentors concluded the meeting with a first reading of bills #2423 about Freshman Senate and interconnectivity to ASUW along with bill #2424 on ASUW support reclassification of position titles along with the approval on the 2014 election ballot.
