The Associated Students of the University of Arizona, UA’s student governance body, voted to sponsor a campus safety campaign, alter its club funding rules and amend its elections code in preparation for next semester during the Nov. 28 meeting in the Pima Room of the Student Union Memorial Center. 

Live Safe Campaign 

With the help of funding approved by the ASUA Senate, ASUA, SafeRide and the University of Arizona Police Department will launch a campus safety campaign on the UA Mall next semester on Jan. 14. 

During the event on the Mall, ASUA will promote SafeRide, its campus-wide program for giving free rides to students, and the UAPD will talk to students about crime reports and safety alerts as well as other campus safety resources. 

          RELATED: ASUA advocates for educational resource accessibility and club funding (Notebook 11/7/2018)

Magnets and other informational merchandise will be handed out to students to help make SafeRide more accessible. Next semester, the senators also plan to look into expanding safety measures on campus, such as the blue emergency lights posted around campus. 

Club Funding

Bennett Adamson, senator for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, introduced an amendment to ASUA to require the Appropriations Board to fund at least one third of reasonable travel funding requests by UA clubs. 

Adamson drafted the amendment after he noticed many UA clubs requesting travel funding were being awarded much less than they requested. 

“We have had UA clubs before that have asked for funding from ASUA and have not received nearly what they were requesting. This new amendment will guarantee that every club gets at least something,” Adamson said. 

The ASUA Senate voted to adopt the amendment. 

The Senate also approved the distribution of over $3,000 to UA clubs. Some of this funding will help send UA’s Arizona Autonomous Vehicle Club to a June competition. 

ASUA has over $100,000 left to help support clubs on campus. 

ASUA Elections 

On the advice of ASUA Elections Director Marlon Freeman, ASUA voted to push back its primary and general elections next semester to March 18-19 and March 25-26, respectively. 

To encourage more candidates for student government, the Senate also discussed decreasing the number of signatures required to run for all ASUA positions.  

Madeline Melichar, senator for College of Engineering, planned to ask the ASUA to vote on dates to hold election informational sessions to help potential candidates run for office. 

Next week, ASUA plans to approve changes to its election code, requiring candidates campaigning for ASUA office to register all social media accounts with ASUA and mark all ASUA-approved campaign material. ASUA will also be redefining the voting rights of students in multiple degree programs.  

Freshman Class Council 

At the request of the Freshman Class Council, the ASUA Supreme Court recently ruled FCC’s elimination last year by the ASUA Executive Board to be null and void.

FCC is a campus organization composed of freshman who previously shadowed ASUA senators to gain experience in student government. 

The ASUA Supreme Court ruled that the ASUA Executive Board did not follow established procedures for eliminating the organization’s relationship with ASUA, and this year’s Executive Board improperly purged the mention of the group from its bylaws. 

           RELATED: ASUA votes on resolution supporting transgender rights (Notebook 10/31/18)

FCC is therefore to be reinstated in the bylaws of ASUA, yet the fate of the program is in the hands of ASUA and ASUA staff. Natalynn Masters, ASUA student body president, laid out her vision for FCC and ASUA’s future relationship to the Senate. 

“This year, we really want to restart FCC and make sure members can shadow ASUA senators,” Masters said. 

ASUA will meet for the last time this semester next Wed., Dec. 5, at 6 p.m. in the Pima Room of the Student Union Memorial Center. Check back to the Daily Wildcat next week for more coverage of ASUA. 

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