As of Wednesday, the University of Idaho ASUI Senate has officially gone paperless.
Senators are now allowed to use laptops, tablets, and phones to access meeting agendas. Sen. Shaundra Herrud said this bill did not include electronic voting, which caused some problems during a trial run at a prior meeting last month.
Sen. Miles Whitling said if senators want a paper copy of the bills, they can print them out before the meeting and senators will now receive the agenda by Tuesday afternoon.
After much debate, the senate decided on an amount of money needed to send Sen. Nicole Skinner and Sen. Carlos Vazquez to a conference in Houston, Texas — put on to bring student leaders together to share ideas. The bill allocates $1850 for travel, lodging and registration costs for the senators attending the conference.
Kizer said senators should be cautious about how they spend the ASUI budget, which is comprised of student fees. A common thought among senators was to consider other revenues of funding to offset the cost.
Sen. Skinner encouraged senators to evaluate the allocation bill thoroughly because it accounts for over two-sevenths of the overall budget. The unused money will be returned to the budget by the end of Feb. 2018, according to the bill.
Additionally, each bill in the new business section of the ASUI agenda will now consist of a 10-minute discussion. Sen. Zachary Spence said this bill will allow senators to speak their mind about the bills before they are voted on in the next week’s meeting.
A resolution urging UI professors to post grades on BBLearn passed the senate. Copies of the resolution will be sent to all deans and associate deans at UI. Sen. Spence said the resolution calls upon the faculty to utilize BBLearn more, focusing more on grades.
ASUI senator applications for spring 2018 are now open and will close Nov. 29. They can be found on VandalSync
Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kalinelson6