In addition to blocking a bill that would have expanded the SGA elections voting window, the SGA Senate passed a bill to create petition rights for first-year councilors and increase student access to naloxone during Thursday’s session.
Expanded representation for FYC
Because of Bill B-3-23, first-year councilors can now file petitions for SGA legislation. Before, councilors could petition only for impeachments and amendments.
Councilor Blake Wright said he and Councilor Reese Langdon co-authored the bill because many first-year students don’t feel represented on campus.
“Obviously we want to get students involved,” Wright said. “The way we approached it … was to make sure students had a voice.”
Wright said he’s excited the bill passed, but that he’ll continue to push for first-year representation.
“I think that increasing the freshman voice is important,” Wright said. “So that what’s actually needed and what’s actually wanted by the freshman class is being efficiently reported on and viewed at meetings.”
Project Theta sent to Student Affairs Committee
The Senate sent a bill that would put naloxone in campus AED kits to the Student Affairs Committee. Nicknamed “Project Theta,” the bill would also provide training in residence halls to educate students on how to intervene during a suspected overdose.
“We had 100,000 deaths related to overdose just last year in the U.S.,” said Councilor Madison Gwin, co-author of the bill. “So, this is a crisis and something we’re looking forward to preventing.”
Gwin said she worked with End Overdose to ensure the bill was airtight, adding that the organization will lead overdose intervention training sessions and directly distribute naloxone to students who request it.
If the bill passes, Gwin says her next step will be ensuring that automated external defibrillator, or AED, kits in Greek houses are stocked with naloxone as well.
“It’s a need for every room on this campus to have Narcan in it,” Gwin said, using the brand name for a device that delivers naloxone.
Clarifications and resolutions
The Senate also passed several language clarifications to the SGA Code of Laws, a resolution commending the work of the board of trustees of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, and a resolution calling for greater advertising of special advising events.
