The Southern Utah University Student Association held their weekly meeting over Zoom on Tuesday, discussing topics such as granting money to T-Bird Bikes and teaching the American Psychological Association style in English courses.
College of Engineering and Computational Sciences Sen. Chris Cox presented a bill to grant $2,000 to T-Bird Bikes, an organization under SUU Outdoors that provides bike rentals to students. By gaining this money, T-Bird Bikes would receive an additional $5,000 grant.
T-Bird Bikes will use the money from both of these grants to promote the organization at events throughout the next year with hopes to “create a more sustainable transportation environment on campus,” according to the bill.
The free bike rentals are currently available and can be rented for a duration based on the student’s needs, whether for a trip to the grocery store or for the whole semester, according to Chief of Staff Samuel Stewart.
The senate motioned to pass the bill, granting T-Bird Bikes the $2,000 to receive after Student Body President Nouman Kante signs the bill.
Humanities and Social Sciences Sen. Amanda Walton gave an update on the incorporation of APA style in English courses, which was a discussion previously referred to the General Education committee at the Nov. 3 meeting.
Walton and the committee have been in contact with Assistant Professor of English John Belk, who says that creating a bill for SUUSA to pass is unnecessary because the English department is already working toward accommodating students who want the option of learning APA format instead of the Modern Language Association format.
Belk said 90% of the English department agrees they should be flexible with allowing students to use APA or MLA.
“It’s awesome to have so many students that excited about APA,” Walton said.
Center for Diversity and Inclusion Rep. Cynthia Hawk motioned to continue the discussion from the Oct. 27 meeting about providing free Plan B One-Step to students in the Health & Wellness Center.
The Plan B One-Step would be given to the Health & Wellness Center using a grant received by the Students United for Reproductive Freedom club. SUU would pay no additional money for the contraceptive, according to Hawk.
Hawk has been working with Health & Wellness Center coordinator Riley Reynolds, whom she said is “down for” adding Plan B One-Step to the center’s resources, they “just need the product.”
With a two-thirds majority needed to pass a motion, 11 of the 15 present SUUSA members voted in favor of furthering the progress on this bill. The official bill will be presented next week.
Chief Justice Colton Smith updated the senate on the renovated election bylaws document and the suggestions given by the senate from last week’s meeting.
Smith added clarifications to the document about what qualifies as an endorsement, giving the example of sharing campaign material on social media. He also added a section to explain the process of a candidate dropping out after the primary elections.
Smith gave credit to the Michael O. Leavitt Center for assisting in writing the bylaws.
The senate motioned to approve the changes to the election bylaws, which will be put in place for the upcoming SUUSA election.
SUUSA will have two more senate meetings this semester, both of which will take place over Zoom.
Story by: Tori Jensen
reporter@suunews.net
Photo courtesy of: Tori Jensen
