ASUW signed off on a $20,000 expenditure to bring the Rave Guardian mobile safety app to UW at its Tuesday, Feb. 20 session, with a single dissenting vote.
Senate Bill 2595 authorizes the allocation of a $2,000 set-up fee and $6,000 annually for three years from the ASUW reserve for the implementation of the app, which offers various safety features and 9-1-1 access to users to quickly call for aid, report safety hazards and inform other users of their walking routes and estimated time of arrival.
27 student senators voted in favor of the bill for its convenience and accessibility for students. The sole dissenter, Senator Jordan Blazovich of the college of health sciences, suggested that the app may be redundant with other safety options already available to students.
“If I’m in an emergency, chances are I’ll call 9-1-1 directly instead of going into an app,” Blazovich said.
Blazovich also referred to existing apps such as Guidebook and WyoVocal that offer students many of the same options and yet are unsuccessful and not significantly utilized by students.
“What is the reassurance that this app will fare any better?” Blazovich said. “I say that we start with the resources we have, we fix those resources and if we’re still not seeing exactly what we want to see then we can come around to this.”
Following the success of the bill, the proposal for a mandatory increase of student fees in 2019, SB 2597, was tabled without discussion for the evening. Students currently pay $674 in student fees per semester and the bill would increase this amount by $16.03 for each student.
Five bills were introduced with their first reading: Revisions to the ASUW Honorary Cowboy Program, which seeks to simplify and improve the Honorary Cowboy Program; Changes to ASUW Senate Membership, which seeks to address the lack of representation of students in some specific programs with special circumstances; ASUW Budget for Fiscal Year 2019; UW 10-Year Housing Plan, a proposal expected to cost approximately $245.4 million and intended to enhance the attractiveness of on-campus housing to current and incoming students; Wyoming Legislature to release $100 million previously appropriated for the Science Initiative Plan in light of recent delays and possible reallocations to other state interests.
