The Senate nominated Senate Pro Tempore Brooks Payne before voting to encourage energy sustainability on campus by reducing the University’s carbon footprint during its meeting on Sept. 13.

The Senate, which also passed two other pieces of legislation before sending a final one to old business, encouraged the University to purchase solar-paneled umbrellas. The umbrellas would include charging mechanisms connected to solar panels so students could charge their devices without using electricity.

Sen. Branden Greenberg, a third-year law student, and Jason Rothfarb, a sophomore majoring in political science, wrote the resolution that encourages the University to follow campuses such as Iowa, UCLA, Cal Poly and UNC at Chapel Hill.

Greenberg said, by mirroring these schools, the University will be able to reduce its goal of eliminating its carbon footprint by 2 percent.

“I think that we could easily surpass 2 percent,” Greenberg said. “To be able to have stations that students can use to charge their own phones and laptops like that and not be using electricity but using solar power would only reduce that immensely.”

Senator Rothfarb said the University could surpass its goal by implementing the solar panels on umbrellas around campus.

“By 2020, [The University of] Alabama wants to reduce the carbon footprint by 2 percent,” Rothfarb said. “Branden and I believe that this will knock it out of the park.”

Additionally, the Senate passed an act to approve the organizational-funding requests suggested by the Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) for the month of October. The act approved nearly 88.58 percent of the funding requests made by 20 separate organizations. The requests amounted to a total of $35,127.87.

The Senate also sent a bill to bring back business professional to old business so the bill could be amended to say business casual. After the authors, Rothfarb and Sen. Logan Sheaffer, agreed they would settle for dressing business casual instead of business professional, a motion was brought forth before being properly seconded on the floor.

Should the bill pass when it is reintroduced from old business, it would mandate senators dress in business casual for each meeting held on the first week of the month. Senators would also be required to dress in business casual for special Senate sessions.

The Senate also passed a bill to create a deadline for student-organized seating. The bill closes a loophole allowing for appeals to student-organized seating throughout the year and only allows for organizations to appeal within the first three days of the student-organized seating chart’s release.

Order of Events
1. Brooks Payne nominated as Senate pro tempore
2. The Senate broke into committees
3. The Senate passed Act A-32-18 approving the organizational funding requests suggested by the Financial Affairs Committee for the month of October 2018 and for other purposes
4. The Senate passed Resolution R-23-18 encouraging energy sustainability and the reduction of carbon footprint
5. The Senate sent Bill B-12-18, a Bill to Bring Back Business Professional, to old business for amendments so it may read a Bill to Bring Back Business Casual when reintroduced
6. The Senate passed Bill B-13-18 creating a deadline for student-organized seating