The ASWSU Senate approved the student tech fee for the 2024–25 school year and passed bills related to ASWSU’s duties at this week’s meeting.

The senators first heard from Alvin Azana, director of diversity, inclusion and veteran affairs, who provided the senators with progress updates on tabling and various meetings with committees. 

Azana said he plans on meeting with the Veterans & Military Associated Students committee and Vice President Maccabee Werndorf sometime in the next few days.

The senators then heard from ASWSU President Luke Deschenes regarding his activities over the past few weeks. Deschenes said he has been working with the landscape architecture department regarding a project for Ruby Street Park on Colorado St.

“We’re just trying to get ideas on what we can do with the space,” he said. “We want to make it more usable, more accessible, and kind of a center to host events and stuff like that.”

Deschenes said that transportation meetings between the transit advisory group and the university transportation and parking task force have begun. He said they have discussed the upcoming construction of the new Schweitzer Engineering Hall building on the south side of campus near Carpenter Hall and how that will impact parking.

“We’re looking at some parking options for the time being, because they don’t really have a plan to replace the parking spots that are going to be lost during construction,” Deschenes said. “We’re going to see what we can do so that students are still able to park in that area of campus during construction.”

He said that the S&A committee voted last week to move up the budget timeline.

The senators then voted on the student tech fee, which is paid by students on campus and goes toward resources used by students, such as the Spark building and the e-sports lounge, Werndorf said. The tech fee for the 2024–25 school year was unanimously approved.

Finally, the senate voted on two bills, Bill 53-06 and 53-07, which were penned by senators Anusha Bose and Cleofa Vargas, respectively.

Bill 53-06, which was authored by Bose, proposed a modification to Article 302.23 of the ASWSU Bylaws regarding duties of the freshmen delegates. It suggested a removal of the requirement for the delegates to have to meet with representatives from Housing & Residence Life. The bill was approved unanimously.

Bill 53-07, which was authored by Vargas, proposed a modification to Article 302.22 of the ASWSU Bylaws regarding duties of the senators. It suggested a removal of the requirement for senators to meet with their team and college, and for at-large senators to meet with the division of department leadership and GPSA. The bill was approved unanimously.

The senate will be holding a town hall from 6–7 p.m. Oct. 19 in CUB 204.  Members of the public are encouraged to attend and ask questions of the senators.

ASWSU will be tabling at the CUB next week on Thursday and Friday. The senate meets 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in CUB 204 unless otherwise stated.