Student Senate held its first meeting of the year, allocates money to SAC

Senate also discussed plans for a campus safety app and budgeting for its upcoming retreat.

[dropcap txtcolor="#234a83" style="dropcap1"]S[/dropcap]tudent Senate voted Wednesday to yield a sum of money to the Senate Appropriations Commision (SAC) at its first meeting of the year.The senate voted unanimously to reallocate $5,000 to SAC — half of a $10,000 rollover from a scale-back of the Bobcat Readership Program, which placed copies of the New York Times and USA Today in Baker University Center and Alden Library.After consultation with the primary benefactors of the Bobcat Readership Program — the Scripps College of Communication — senate decided to reduce the program to only include copies of NYT in Baker, Anna Ayers, the SAC commissioner, said.Rather than leave the full $10,000 saved by the rollback in the senate treasury, Ayers said, it is important to evenly split the sum with SAC; the SAC treasury was depleted in March of last year.[AdSense-A]Once the funding becomes available in September, it will be distributed to senate and SAC. SAC starts with a budget of $500,00 and allocates funding to student organizations. “In this case, it is very generous for senate to offer SAC this money,” Ayers said. “SAC money goes entirely to students, so this is pretty cool that we’re giving this to SAC.”Also discussed were the initial plans for a “safety app,” an idea that BRIDGE Ohio — the executive senate ballot — campaigned last year. The app is a tool for safe travel across campus.Although the app is in the early stages of planning, Student Senate Vice President Hannah Burke said that senate plans on forming a committee with the Ohio University Police Department (OUPD), the Office of Information Technology, and representatives from Senate.The plans call for finding a third-party company to pitch an app idea, create it, and sell it to the committee. Burke mentioned that other universities have created apps that are similar to the planned app.“I’m just really excited to make students safe, that is a big thing that affects everyone’s everyday life,” Burke said.Senate also passed two resolutions to allocate funding for their retreat, which takes place on Sept. 1. One of the resolutions will allocate $170.27 for the breakfast with administrators; the other resolution allocates $197.13 for lunch.Senate also nominated several of their members to commissioner positions.