Senators cast votes during Tuesday’s ASB Senate meeting in the Lyceum.
Photo by Phillip Waller I The Daily Mississippian
The Associated Student Body Senate voted Tuesday evening to reject a resolution in favor of establishing a five dollar green fee to be assessed all students’ tuition. The proposed fee was intended to bolster the UM Green Fund, an existing pool of money to promote sustainability projects on campus.
The resolution was rejected by a 17-26-9 vote.
ASB Senator Vivian Paris said that the amount proposed prevented most senators from being able to back the measure.
“Let’s go with two dollars,” Paris said. “The problem is the amount — the issue is not that you’re paying, it’s the amount. I believe it was, and the people I was talking to believe it was.”
Currently, the UM Green Fund is supported by a $15,000 baseline annual contribution from the university in addition to student donations matched by 50 percent university support.
The Green Fund supports on-campus initiatives such as reducing the number of water bottles used on campus by popularizing stylized “H2OTTY TODDY” water bottles and installing Hydration Station dispensers on campus.
Co-author of the university’s Green Fund Charter Will Bedwell said the vote of the senate was disappointing, but will not deter Students for a Greener Campus from supporting the cause of sustainability through funding initiatives.
“Tonight we came to ASB with quality data about how about how the student body felt about this issue,” Bedwell said. “We explained what all we have been through in working on this campaign for years, exactly what it was and what could be done to support both the cause and their constituents – sadly, they didn’t do that.”
Bedwell said student input was lacking in the discussion surrounding the issue of funding.
“I challenged the senators to speak out, if their constituents were against it, and no one seemed to know where their constituents stood,” Bedwell said. “We were the only ones in the room who knew how students felt and were able to prove that, but still found that our resolution was voted down.”
Senior public policy major Taylor Cook visited the Senate in support of the initiative.
“I don’t think that a lot of students realize that we already pay fees, and that they are wrapped up in our tuition,” Cook said. “We pay fees for athletics, although some students have never gone to games; we pay fees for the Turner Center, although many students do their workouts outside of that gym; we pay fees for the student health center, although people may go to private doctors in town. But, we decide as a student body that these things are important, and I think that we can all agree that breathing clean air and drinking clean water are important; therefore, sustainability is.”
-Grant Beebe
beebe.thedm@gmail.com
