A new safety app and senate elections were the highlights of ASUA’s first senate meeting of the fall semester on Wednesday evening.

One of the first topics addressed at the meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona was senate elections for the following year. A motion was approved to set the election dates in early March before students leave for spring break.

Jordan Allison, ASUA executive vice president, said senate elections will begin in January with interested applicants getting packets about the positions they will be running for. According to Allison, there are 13 positions within the student government: the president, executive vice president, administrative vice president and ten senators.

Allison said students interested in running for ASUA will still have to get signatures, but ASUA has not determined the amount of signatures applicants will need to retrieve for senate elections.
“It’s a really cool opportunity to go network with all the students, meet people, get your name out there,” Allison said.

Allison encouraged students to get involved if they are interested in having a leadership role at the university.

The senate then yielded to Commander Brian Seastone, the chief of police at the University of Arizona Police Department, for the next topic of discussion. UAPD asked ASUA for $37,000 to fund a new app it wants to bring to campus called LiveSafe. If approved, LiveSafe will be a supplement to the blue light system on campus.

“This app is an additional safety measure for people to report crimes to [UAPD], to give them the opportunity to have emergency procedures right at their fingertips at all times,” Seastone said.
Seastone said that the app will call 911 directly, and people can send a text message to the police department through the app if they are in an unsafe situation.

The search to fund this app is a part of an ongoing security effort.

“You’ve got to find the right products, and this seems to be the right app for us,” Seastone said. “It’s one that’s being used by other universities, it’s very versatile and just meets a lot of needs.”

Once the LiveSafe app receives a final approval and funding from the university, UAPD will launch a full campaign to inform and encourage students to use the app. The app is student-regulated, meaning students can control when the tracking device is being used once the app is downloaded.

Seastone also reassured the senators that the implementation of LiveSafe is not a result of high or increasing crime rates at the university.

The meeting concluded with each of the senators stating their excitement for the year and reporting projects they’re working on, which will be discussed further at the next senate meeting.

—Follow Brandi Walker @itsbrandibb