Graphic by Bell Jackson By Jacob Gross
In their two most recent meetings, the SGA senate swore in a new senator, passed a Freshman Forum resolution and heard announcements for future events.
The Freshman Forum introduced Resolution: 2021-R-036, which proposed changing visitation hours from noon until midnight to 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Freshman Forum received feedback about this change from the student body via a campus wide survey, and found that 87.5% of respondents favored the change. This resolution will go into effect next semester.
Cody Hodge, the Student Trustee of SGA, sat in on UM’s Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 18. Hodge said the Board announced Physical Plant Director Coty Jones is launching the Campus Electrical and High Voltage Project. The project will aim to isolate university buildings on the power grid. This project aims to avoid incidents such as the Napier Hall power outage in January.
Hodge also reported that meal plan prices will be raised by 6% next semester, while tuition prices will stay the same.
During SGA’s Feb. 16 meeting, Demetris Buford, a sophomore marketing major, was sworn in as a senator.
SGA also announced several upcoming events, including a blood drive that will be hosted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Feb. 8 and 9. The Black Heritage Committee announced their showing of “King Richard” at 3 p.m. on Feb. 27, and UPC announced the Homage Exhibit in Anna Irvin Dining Hall on Feb. 24, which featured writings from Fredrick Douglas, Booker T. Washington and other social advocates.
SGA announced KFC will be taken off of Flex Points due to a lack of Flex Point sales. This action, according to AnaKate Andrasko, President of SGA, is because, “last month they did zero orders through flex points.”
According to Andrasko, the Food Advisory Committee is looking to replace KFC with another Flex Point option, but a decision on what restaurant that will be has yet to be made.
On Feb. 25 the University of Montevallo changed their official mask policy to “masks optional.” Andrasko, who serves on the COVID-19 Task Force commented that she had been talking to students both this semester and last semester, and the majority of students are in favor of removing mask mandates.
Jacob Gross is a writer for The Alabamian. He is an English major with a creative writing minor. He has played guitar for a few years and really enjoys painting even though he believes he is bad at it.
