ASWSU President Curtis Cohen met with ASWSU senators to discuss WSU’s plan to replace spring break with academic break days without homework during Wednesday night’s meeting.

Cohen said he and ASWSU Vice President Sean Doster spoke with WSU President Kirk Schultz and Provost Elizabeth Chilton about not allowing teachers to assign homework during or before break days.

“Spring break is gone, and that’s quite tragic,” Cohen said, “but we want to make sure that these academic rest days that replaced it are going to be legitimate rest days.”

Restaurant Week

Senators announced ASWSU is partnering with GPSA to create another Restaurant Week starting Nov. 9 and ending on Nov. 13, Doster said. The event is designed to help Pullman restaurants bring in extra customers.

WSU graduate students will receive a $5 discount on their meal, excluding alcohol purchases, if they present their CougarCards and student emails at specific restaurants. Restaurants will be reimbursed through GPSA and WSU’s Presidential budgets.

Fees

Joel Aleman, ASWSU director of university affairs, said WSU is permanently suspending the withdrawal fee for dropping a class starting spring semester. This change is not related to COVID-19 and the change will remain when students return to in-person classes.

Samantha Cruz, ASWSU director of legislative affairs, said she plans to propose legislation that did not pass last year. This includes bills for free menstrual products for students, open-access textbooks for first-year students and the elimination of hidden fees through homework websites like iClicker and TopHat.

“A couple of those bills fell through by a hair, so I want to make sure those go through,” she said.

Student care packages and health fees

Patrick Johnson, ASWSU director of health, said 200 student care packages have been assembled by his department and there are supplies available for 800 more. These packages will be made available to students upon request at Cougar Health Services.

He said the Student Health Advisory Committee proposed a reduction in the health fee. The proposal would reduce fees by $40, from $244 to $204, and they are considering further reductions.

Future plans

Aleman said he spoke to Bird Scooters about bringing motorized scooters to campus. He said he plans to have scooters available on campus by March 15 with a full safety plan in place.

Aleman said he is working with the syllabus committee to split syllabi into class-specific information, as well as university protocols and resources.