The Associated Students of Colorado State University voted on two pieces of legislation, including a resolution on veteran support and a bill about funding a travel grant.
The Senate also discussed a new resolution regarding student parents.
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Senate votes on veteran support, oSTEM funding
Chair for Internal Affairs Committee Tristan Reyez authored and presented a resolution expressing support for veterans around the CSU and Fort Collins communities.
The resolution claims it’s “in the best interest of veterans on this campus to feel supported and appreciated for their service to the country.”
The resolution passed with unanimous consent.
The senate also discussed last week’s bill asking to fund $1,000 to Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for a conference in Detroit, Michigan.
The bill failed to pass with a 6-20-3 vote against it.
The primary argument against the bill was that new perspectives on the circumstances make it seem as if oSTEM may not have fulfilled their responsibilities in understanding the deadline.
It’s unfair to the students that we’ve turned down with no exceptions to give funding to a group just because they failed to know what the policies were.” -Chief of Staff Melissa Quesada
“The more I hear and the more information I get on this situation, it sounds like somebody didn’t read the fine print and they’re trying to get us to come back around and fix their mistake, and that’s not what we’re here for,” Senator Cornelius Vander Eyk said.
Senator Ethan Burshek explained that the application for a travel grant includes a disclaimer box that everyone must check saying they have read in full and understand the entirety of the application procedure, including the deadline.
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The box was checked on the oSTEM application, Burshek said.
Another argument was that passing this bill would be unfair to past organizations that have been rejected for similar reasons.
Chief of Staff Melissa Quesada also read the emails between the Board of Student Organization Funding and oSTEM, showing that the organization had over a month to turn in their application.
“It’s unfair to the students that we’ve turned down with no exceptions to give funding to a group just because they failed to know what the policies were,” Quesada said. “If you commit a crime and you don’t know what the law is that doesn’t make you exempt from your punishment.”
Resolution 4907: Student-parent absence
Senators Ryan Kropp, Josh Johnson and Hannah Brech presented a resolution to aid student-parents on days where the Poudre School District closes. The resolution would allow excused absences during these days.
Kropp said student-parents are some of the most mature and responsible students in the University, with higher average GPAs.
Student-parents also have the highest drop-out rate due to time deficits, Kropp said.
“In order to keep some of our best students as students, and in order to allow these people that work so hard and do so much on top of being students to have equal opportunity to graduate, we propose this resolution to allow student-parents excused absences during school closures,” Kropp said.
The authors of the resolution focused on the decision student-parents are forced to make between their education and their children.
Johnson said this isn’t to say there aren’t professors who support student-parents. Rather, this is to work at a higher level than one professor’s choice.
The resolution was sent to both the External and University Issues committees.
Charlotte Lang can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @chartrickwrites.
