Student Union

Last night, SU Senate unanimously passed a resolution advocated for the renaming of the University's Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization, which is attached below.  Thank you to all the students who came out to show your passion and support, and moving forward we aspire to continue addressing issues that are of such great interest to you.

Senate also inducted 12 senators for the new term, 7 of which are new to Senate (denoted with a *):

Architecture - Taylor Epskamp*
Art - Kelsey Eng
Arts & Sciences - Ross Passo*, Mamatha Challa, Alex Cooper*, Michael Post, Dan Robinson*, Eric Schwartz, Jacqui Germain*
Business - Jason Yakabu
Engineering - Pat Kelly*, Cody Katz*

Finally, Senate held our internal elections for this new term last night:

Speaker of the Senate - Chase Sackett
Academic Affairs Committee Chair - Michelle Chen
Campus Services Committee Chair - Liz Jordan
University Initiatives Committee Chair - Kirsten Miller

Thank you again to everyone who came last night, and please let us know however we can help you with an issue on campus!  As a preview, next week WUPD Chief Don Strom will be coming to our meeting and discussing ways to address the issue of racial profiling on campus.

This Wednesday at 9PM in Simon 113, SU Senate will vote on a proposed resolution, sponsored by Senators Jake Novick and Jason Yakabu, to advocate for the renaming of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization, on the basis that the term "clean coal" is an industry marketing term and that usage of such wording may invite doubt regarding the integrity of the research conducted by the Consortium.  The full resolution is attached below, along with the full agenda for Senate this week.  As always, we hope to see you there to let Senate know your thoughts on the legislation.

If you've read Student Life today, you've seen that six seniors on the Senior Class trip in Chicago this weekend were racially discriminated against at a bar (http://www.studlife.com/news/2009/10/18/students-protest-race-discrimination-at-bar-in-chicago-during-senior-class-trip/).  The news release Senior Class President Fernando Cutz sent to 26 media outlets yesterday morning is attached below as well.  In response, Senator Jake Laperruque is co-sponsoring a resolution on the issue with Fernando, which Senate will see on Wednesday-- this is also attached below.  Jake, Senator Matt Aiken, and I will also be investigating racial profiling at Wash U over the next week or two.  Please come and let Senate know your feelings on the issue at our meeting Wednesday at 9PM in Simon 113, or email us beforehand at senate@su.wustl.edu .

Senate will also be reviewing election reform legislation tabled from last week's meeting.  In addition, Senate passed a number of reforms at our meeting last week that Treasury will be voting on tomorrow night.  All are included in the document that is attached.

Last night, Student Union Senate held a forum on the tobacco ban and also voted on Student Union’s official response.  An array of viewpoints were expressed at the forum, and students were active participants in the discussion regarding SU’s appropriate reaction.

Senate passed a resolution reacting to the ban by a margin of 15-5 (see below for the resolution itself).  The resolution calls for greater communication between the administration and students, formal administrative recognition of the importance of student input, and administrative reevaluation of the tobacco ban’s implementation. 

Last night at our Senate meeting, Matt Aiken and I successfully passed a resolution calling the administration to speed up the process of getting our Campus Cards to work at off-campus restaurants.

We have been meeting with school officials for weeks now, discussing the future of our Campus Card abilities and have been told that the move to off-campus payment has long been underway.  However, the administration needed a show of student support to expedite the process and jumpstart the early-stage action necessary to get a system implemented in the near future.