During its latest meeting, First Year Council passed a resolution creating the FYC chief of staff position and discussed mental health awareness. 

The chief of staff would assist in doing tasks like distributing legislation within FYC, aiding in policy discussions across committees, maintaining a legislative database and other tasks according to the resolution. 

Harrison Adams, the bill’s author was not present at the meeting. However, Jay Little, a freshman majoring in computer science who serves as FYC president, was one of the resolution’s sponsors and discussed the importance of creating this position and how it differs from the already established position of FYC secretary. 

“The secretary we now have has a long list of duties already…[the chief of staff] will be doing more of, like, the secretarial type roles and whereas our secretary now will be doing more of working with our legislation and members directly,” he said.

The resolution was sent to the Rules Committee for further consideration. 

In addition, R-02 was reintroduced. This resolution encourages “the reformation of mental health awareness programs on campus,” according to the resolution’s title. The resolution urges the University to create an online module similar to Haven and AlcoholEdu but would instead focus on mental health. This module would need to be completed by students annually. The resolution also encourages speakers to discuss mental health awareness during Bama Bound sessions. 

Ultimately, the resolution was sent back to the Student Affairs Committee for additional amendments. 

Order of Events:

1.) Gretchen Moore, the assistant director for the Center for Service and Leadership, informed the councilors about the CSL and the various partnerships and some of their community action teams including Al’s Pals and the University of Alabama Dance Marathon.

2.) A representative from UADM discussed UADM and the group’s competition with the Louisiana State University Dance Marathon to see who can raise the most money in a week. 

3.) Speaker of the Senate Lance McCaskey reiterated the steps of the legislative process.

4.) R-02  encouraging change of mental health awareness programs on campus reintroduced, recommitted to the Rules Committee for further review.

5.) R-03 encouraging the creation of FYC chief of staff introduced, sent to the Rules Committee.