The 68th session of the Student Senate started the school year with its regular meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 16 in the Dakota Ballroom of Davies Student Center.

The meeting began with an open forum presentation from campus sustainability coordinator Lily Strehlow.

Strehlow’s presentation included information regarding the Office of Sustainability and requested the senators continued support. The Student Office of Sustainability is a general assembly commission that contains 12 voting members who administer the Green Fund.

Some of the recently approved changes included the transition to metal water bottles for block meals, creating compost bins on Upper Campus and for the new Sonnentag Center to be WELL health safety rated. This enabled the campus carbon footprint and overall sustainability to improve over the past couple of years.

Following the open forum, the senators discussed beginning of the year events, such as a potential voting drive at SHIFT Cyclery and Coffee Bar and a housing survey that will be sent out to students in the near future.

Intergovernmental Affairs Commission Director Brenna Strojnc introduced the IGA Fall 2024 Legislative Priority Summary (LPS) 68-R-1 Resolution. It was drafted mainly based on past summaries and is set to serve as a guide for future legislation. The LPS is a comprehensive guide of issues that are faced by UW-Eau Claire students.

“The top priority for me when it comes to election materials and relating it back to the LPS is- we mentioned sustainability in it, and past years of the intergovernmental commission has continued to use wasteful advertisements for how to register to vote, where your polling place, is what’s gonna be on the ballot,” Strojinc said.

The legislation was approved 22-0-2.

Next semester, the senate will attend the Rally For Excellence where they will lobby with state legislators and present the issues that are the most pressing, especially regarding what affects students. The LPS will be utilized as a guidebook during this event.

“I think it’s important for us to obviously advertise so students know, but my commission is planning on figuring out a way to be more sustainable,” Strojinc said.

The senate adjourned at 6:52 p.m. The following meeting will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 in the Dakota Ballroom of Davies.

Jochum can be reached at [email protected].