The number of recycling bins on campus will soon increase dramatically, after the Senate approved a bill to fund the environment committee for 250 recycling bin lids and labels during Tuesday’s meeting.
The approved bill was proposed during the last Senate meeting.
A different bill filed earlier this year funded for 200 new recycling bins but did not fund for the lids. The bins, however, could not be distributed without lids, which have to be specially ordered.
The Senate also approved a newly proposed bill to fund the Department of Multicultural Student Activities $1,900 for an African-American Recruitment Conference.
AARC is a new conference designed with the intention to increase the number of African-American students applying and enrolling at SMU.
The funds will provide lunch and audio/visual technology for the conference, which will bring in African-American students from low-income areas in the Dallas and Ft. Worth communities to campus.
African-American Special Interest Senator Lee Hinga, who wrote the bill, said he hopes the conference will continue for years to come.
According to Hinga, when he enrolled at SMU, there were only 50 African-American students in his class.
“I wish I had something like this when I was in high school,” Hinga said. “I was the only African-American to come to SMU from my high school in Dallas.”
Hinga believes the conference will increase the enrollment of African-American students at SMU. Many senators agreed with Hinga.
“This is a very good use of $1,900,” Engineering Senator Reid Varner said. “What better way to spend the money than by recruiting more students to come to SMU?”
While the bill did face some opposition, mostly due to the fact that it was proposed so late considering the conference will take place on Oct. 31, it was approved without a significant amount of debate.
Two new bills were also proposed this week. A bill to fund $2,677.50 for the continued printing of Hilltopics and a bill to fund the Association for Computing Machinery with $1,418 to attend an international collegiate programming competition will be voted on next week.
The Senate approved the organization committee’s positive recommendation to elevate the Bhakti Yoga Club to probationary status.
During the last meeting two weeks ago, the Senate voted to approve the organization committee’s positive recommendation to give Students for a Better Society temporary status as a chartered organization.
This week, however, a complaint was filed against this recommendation, and SBS’s proposal will have to go through committee and a vote in the Senate once again.
The complaint was filed by First-year Sen. Jonathan Lane, who believes there is insufficient proof that the organization provides an “ongoing benefit to the university community.”
The complaint will be discussed in-depth during next week’s meeting.
The executive committee’s recommendations to fill the two vacant Cox seats were approved. Kyle Carlton and Martha Fergeson will be inducted as Cox senators next week.
President Liz Healy also announced the members of the newly created Research and Recommendation team. Senators Emily Graham, Jacyln Durr, Kimberly Sellers, Robin Millican, Reid Varner, Alan Lin and Gave Travers make up the Senates’ first R and R team. Together, they will research the Senate’s training procedures, structure, committees and documents.
“This is not saying that anything needs to change,” Healy said. “We are supportive of every chair and officer we have right now. This is just to make sure we’re representing all students to the best of our ability.”
According to Advisor Thomas Hailey, the Senate has received many positive comments from the administration regarding the new R and R team.
“We’ve gotten a lot of comments from administrators who think it’s one of the best things Senate has done in a while,” Hailey said. “I am extremely confident in the people who have been chosen in this committee.”
The meeting concluded this week with the first-ever senatorial forum, during which senators discussed the relevance of precedence in their decision-making progress.
