The Associated Students of the University of Arizona, UA’s undergraduate student governing body, discussed a campus census resolution and the disbanding of the Colleges of Letters, Arts and Sciences, in addition to a presentation from campus pantry.
Campus Census
Rocque Perez, an at-large Senator, proposed a resolution to raise awareness of the 2020 census across campus. One of the ultimate goals, Perez said, was to increase student participation rates in the census.
“Students are the largest population to not accurately respond or respond at all to the census,” Perez said.
The initiative would be a joint effort between ASUA and the UA’s Complete Count Committee. Arizona’s public universities would also be collaborating with each other to engage students.
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Senator Matt Hernandez asked if the initiative would aid students living in the country illegally with filling out a census comfortably, given that the Trump administration unsuccessfully pushed to add a citizenship question to the upcoming census.
“By law, that information is not shared, so it’s just a matter of data, that’s all the census is,” Perez said regarding the citizenship question. “Ultimately, the Dean of Students Office had taken a stance that they wouldn’t have allowed that to happen.”
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Adora Harvey, Colleges of Letters, Arts and Sciences senator, said her college had been disbanded. The Wildcat is working on confirming this with the college and will update the story accordingly.
“For undecided students and general studies, apparently last year Elliott Cheu, who is the associate dean at the College of Science, he drafted up a proposal for a college for his students called the undergraduate college,” Harvey said during her senator report. “So I’m going to meet with him and I’m hoping I can get some momentum.”
After the senate meeting, Harvey said for students currently in the Colleges of Letters, Arts and Sciences, nothing is changing.
“Students still see the same advisers,” Harvey said. “Right now, I think people are just trying to plan what’s next in terms of trying to get [students] into a college.”
Harvey also said there’s some politics involved with moving the Colleges of Letters, Arts and Sciences majors into other colleges.
“Especially with other colleges wanting to claim majors from my college, not because they have the resources to absorb those students, but because they want the funding,” she said.
UA officially asked the Arizona Board of Regents to eliminate the college in February 2018.
Campus Pantry
Michaela Davenport, student director of Campus Pantry, gave a presentation about the resource, in addition to its needs and goals for the future.
“We provide supplemental groceries to students, faculty and staff on campus,” Davenport said. “We don’t have any barriers to entry, all that we require is that folks bring their CatCard.”
The ASUA service wants to expand community involvement, reach out to more clubs across campus and engage with faculty.
The next scheduled campus pantry distribution is Friday, Sept.13, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
College of Architecture Appointment
Nathan Dysko has been appointed as the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture senator. The position was vacant as of last year’s election. ASUA’s election codes outline the process of filling a vacant position in the senate, including an interviewing process. However, the codes do not specify that the process has to be public.
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