YPSILANTI, MI - Student Government passed three new resolutions on March 5 in McKenny Hall, with 13 Senators present as well as Student Body President Candice Crutcher, Director of Business and Finance, Quentin Francis and Director of Political Action, Faraz Ansari.
Discussion included a handicap door audit, an expansion of the parking lot time limit, reallocating the budget to increase funds for student organizations and creating a Martin Luther King Jr. poetry scholarship.
In her executive report, Crutcher mentioned the topic of privatizing housing, saying that more information is expected soon.
In an interview, Crutcher talked about whether the university is thinking of moving towards privatization or not, Crutcher said, “Right now it’s still up in the air, we’re still leaning towards not privatizing as far as I’m concerned.”
Budget Reallocation
The Senate passed a budget reallocation bill which sought to provide more funds in the Student Organization Allocations line item. This fund is used for allocating resources to student organizations on campus. With an increased number of requests for allocations, the Director of the Business and Finance Committee requested $14,350 from various parts of the budget to be added to the Student Organization Allocations line item.
The resolution took $6,000 out of The Contingency line item, $1,000 came from the Student Leadership Development line item, $2,350 came out of the Program Grants line item and $5,000 came from the Student Government reserves.
The resolution was adopted unanimously, with all 13 Senators present voting yes.
Free Parking Time Limit
The second resolution urged LAZ Parking to extend the free parking time limit in all pay lots from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. A previous version of the resolution sought to extend the time to 30 minutes but an amendment had been adopted to change the increase to 15 minutes. This resolution passed unanimously.
Handicap Door Access
The third resolution that was passed involved handicap access to doors on campus. According to the resolution, several Senators had received complaints about access to handicapped doors as well as the use of the doors. The resolution recommended an investigation into improving all handicapped doors on campus. The resolution, authored by Senator Hollings, was also passed unanimously.
Martin Luther King Jr. Poetry Scholarship
A fourth resolution, which would establish an annual scholarship in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., was debated and ultimately tabled until next week’s meeting.
The resolution, which was authored by Senator Kirk Suchowesky, would put $10,000 from the Student Government reserves into an endowment fund. The fund would then generate 4 percent interest every year. This interest would be used to create a yearly scholarship awarded to the winning student of a poetry contest.
The purpose of the scholarship is to “perpetuate the ideals and honor the legacy of Dr. King on...campus” and was created in response to the recent controversies regarding racism.
