Secretary resigns; energy resolution passes (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)

Secretary Drew Washington announced his resignation in Tuesday’s Senate meeting giving no specific reason for his decision.

“I just feel like it’s best for me and for Student Senate not to serve right now,” former Secretary Drew Washington said.

Though Student Body President Liz Healy said Senate has “lost a great member of our team,” she supports Washington’s decision.

“First and foremost we’re people before we’re senators,” Healy said. “I support Drew as a friend and a colleague, understanding that he’s making the decision that is best for himself and for the Senate.”

Healy will appoint an interim secretary, who will serve until a new secretary is elected, next Tuesday. If the only person to run for the position is the interim secretary, no special election will be held.

A special election will be held Nov. 17 and 18 to elect a new student body secretary.

Applications to run for this office will be available by noon today at www.smu.edu/studentsenate/opportunities. All full-time students with an SMU semester and cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or above are eligible to run.

The secretary must also be available to serve from 3:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays for the general Senate meeting and must attend the Senate executive committee meetings on Mondays at 4 p.m.

Senate is also currently accepting applications for the student issues committee chair. Application for this position are also available on the Web site.

A resolution proposed last week declaring the student body’s interest in taking a leadership role within the southwest United States in the promotion and use of clean, renewable energy was debated and approved this week.

The resolution, written by Dedman I Sen. Wes Brown, asks the administration to make a commitment to join the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership by adopting a policy to supplement part of the campus’ energy consumption with clean, renewable energy within a year.

It also asks the administration to switch 3 percent of SMU’s energy use from traditional sources to renewable energy sources, as is required within the first year of membership in the Green Power Partnership.

According to Environment Committee Chair Joseph Grinnell, the administration is already considering making the new Embrey environmental and civil engineering building entirely powered by renewable energy. This would constitute 1.5 percent of the campus’ total energy, requiring SMU to make only 1.5 percent more of the campus powered by renewable energy to meet EPA’s Green Power Partnership standards.

If the administration does decide to power 3 percent of the school by renewable energy, SMU would join schools such as Harvard, Yale and Duke on the Green Power Partnership list, and would be the first school in the southwest to join the partnership.

“In our minds, there’s no reason to vote against this,” Brown said. “If we go ahead with this 3 percent it could spur more commitment to use reusable energy, which could save us a lot of money in the long run.”

The resolution, which was given a positive recommendation by the executive committee, was passed with only one nay vote, and the executive committee will now present it to the administration.

A resolution proposed last week congratulating Harriet Miers on her nomination to the Supreme Court was withdrawn, and three new bills were proposed, each by Law Sen. Kimberly Sellers. A bill asking Senate to fund the Board of Advocates $490 for two new computer monitors, a bill to fund law students to buy a table at an emerging trends in real estate event and a bill to fund the Student Bar Association $3,700 for a band to play at its annual barrister’s ball will be debated and voted on next week.

Senate voted to uphold the finance committee’s positive recommendations to provide Student Promoting Awareness, Responsibility and Citizenship $165 to publish a newsletter, and to provide SPARC with $200 to purchase gasoline for its event vans.

Senate also voted to uphold the organizations committee’s recommendation to remove the Cycling Club from the chartering process.