Student senators passed a bill to distribute reusable bamboo cutlery to UW students at an upcoming event and heard a lengthy report on Fraternity and Sorority Life plans at the Tuesday meeting of ASUW, among some other business.
Plans for the cutlery were confirmed with the passage of SB-2633: Sustainable Effort for the 2018 Homecoming, approving budgeting for 250 sets of bamboo utensils, which include carrying cases, at the ASUW Pig Roast meet-and-greet on Oct. 19—replacing the usual throwaway plastic utensils on a first-come, first-served basis.
“A lot of the senators are definitely sustainability-minded and looking for ways to be better about that as a campus,” ASUW President Seth Jones said. “There’s a lot of things in the works for what we can do as a student body and working with administration.”
College of Education Senator Wendy Hungerford, who introduced the bill, already owns a set of the bamboo cutlery and uses it frequently.
“This is something we really want to do,” Hungerford said. “It’s something that we’ve heard other students are excited about, and other senators are excited about.”
Some senators felt the promotion of reusable cutlery may not be cost-effective enough, and others expressed concern that sets would end up in the trash anyway.
The bill’s advocates have plans to advertise the utensils’ properties to keep students informed and to promote habits comparable to carrying personal water bottles around, as well as tentative plans to issue additional sets at future events to further reduce spending on plastic utensils.
In other business, Fraternity and Sorority Life Advisor Erik Kahl gave senators a look at ongoing plans to expand Greek life on campus in coming years with new organizations, including culture and identity-based groups, and new housing.
Hungerford perceived less availability for Greek life opportunities for female-centered organizations compared to male organizations.
“There’s already a pretty big discrepancy in the amount of sororities offered versus the amount of fraternities offered,” Hungerford said. “What is the plan to close that gap for the female students on campus?”
Kahl answered that fraternity groups have about half the membership of a sorority on average, accounting for the greater number of unique organizations but “relatively equal” total membership.
The organizations also operate on largely different principles and timeframes, with fraternities being more open about membership and the formation of new official groups than sororities.
“It usually takes about 18 months from beginning to end to bring a sorority to campus,” Kahl said. “The numbers in the sorority community have to be a certain level for that to occur. The men’s groups have pretty much the completely opposite policy and philosophy. They promote what’s called ‘open expansion,’ the idea is the right to assemble.”
Students with suggestions or questions for ASUW can find contact information for their college’s representatives on ASUW’s website, and open forums are held Thursdays at 7:00pm at which students can hear and give feedback for newly introduced bills.
