SGA agreed on three primary priorities for the year at their latest Senate meeting: accessibility, wellness and connectivity.
The Senate unanimously passed this Primary Directive resolution at their Oct. 3 meeting to narrow down their priorities for the year with the goal of making SGA more intentional with the bills that are introduced and give students a way to hold the Senate accountable for their promises.
Accessibility is defined by the senate as equal access to campus resources, facilities and opportunities regardless of disabilities in the resolution. The Senate intends to work with Disability Services, MOSAIC, Facility Services, the Office of Inclusive Services and campus leadership to make meaningful change in this area.
Wellness is defined in the resolution as supporting students’ mental, emotional and physical health. The resolution specifically acknowledges the difficulties students faced following the deaths of three people on campus in February, including the double homicide of music student Samuel Knopp and Celie Rain Montgomery, as well as the death of nursing student Mia Brown.
The resolution defines connectivity as building meaningful connections between students, colleges and the wider university community, which SGA plans to accomplish by building a vibrant campus culture and preparing students for their futures.
The Primary Directive resolution was introduced at the previous SGA meeting on Sept. 19 but was tabled because of concerns about wording. The first draft of the resolution defined wellness as mental stability, which Senator-at-Large Hayley Crist felt omitted an emphasis on physical health and also didn’t indicate a desire for students to flourish rather than just be stable.
There were also concerns about the wording of the resolution restricting the ability to pass bills that don’t meet one of these three priorities, so a section was added to the resolution to allow bills to pass outside of these three directives if they benefit the student body.
While there are no repercussions stated in the resolution if a bill doesn’t meet the criteria, author of the resolution and Speaker of the Senate Greg Abukar-Duru urged the Senate to strongly consider these directives when authoring and passing future bills.
“If you do vote on this, you guys are all agreeing that we have to keep up with these core elements,” Abukar-Duru said. “You guys have to [ask] yourselves, ‘does it follow [one of] these three principles?’ And if it doesn’t, should it be a bill? And if it should be a bill, you have to advocate why it should be a bill.”
In other news:
- SGA unanimously passed the UCCS Votes Campaign bill to encourage student participation for the Nov. 5 election. The bill will fund three banners to be placed in high traffic areas as well as 1,500 coffee sleeve stickers to be distributed at Big Cat Coffee locations. The banners and stickers will cost $774.99 including GAR. SGA plans to reuse any leftover materials for the SGA election in the spring and for future nationwide elections.
- Senator of Innovation Isabella Polombo asked the Senate for support and permission to start an ad hoc committee to preserve and grow the free period product initiative on campus that started in 2021 by faculty and SGA joined via resolution in 2023. The request was met with overall support from the Senate, with several senators expressing interest in joining the committee.
- SGA Director of Finance Amanda Ford is starting a campaign to bring awareness to Lime Scooters being placed in the middle of walkways on campus, affecting ADA compliance. Ford has started the Instagram page @COS_Block_the_Walk, which posts pictures of Lime scooters obstructing walkways. If students see a scooter, Ford asks them to take a photo, move the scooter, report the scooter to Lime and either send the photo to the account or post it using the hashtag #COSBlockTheWalk and tag the account.
- A representative from the League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region spoke to the Senate to encourage them to vote in the upcoming election and set an example as campus leaders. The organization will be tabling near the Big Cat Coffee at the University Center from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Mondays for the next three weeks starting today to encourage students to register to vote.
Photo from The Scribe Archives.