The
Student Government Association (SGA) has begun work on a variety of projects to
tackle this coming semester.
Proposed
changes to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's tobacco and smoking
policies are one of the more contentious issues, set to be resolved by SGA's Ad Hoc Committee for the Resolution of Tobacco Concerns.
Voters
will have the chance to choose between five different options in a binding
referendum: a campus-wide tobacco ban; a campus-wide smoking ban; the creation
of designated smoking areas; a transitional plan; and an option in favor of not
changing any of the current policies regulating tobacco use on campus.
SGA
will also see some changes to the inside of its own organization.
SGA's
environmental sustainability and issues director position will be reorganized
into a larger environmental sustainability office. UWSP student organizations
concerned with environmental issues will be represented in the new office to
better reflect UWSP's commitment to issues concerning the environment.
One
of the environmental concerns up for discussion is the Penokee
Range iron mine in Northern Wisconsin and the issues the mine may cause
to the environmentally conscious UWSP campus.
“They
will have a larger budget, better apt to pay for capital projects in order to
be sustainable,” said SGA President Seth Hoffmeister.
Hoffmeister
also said that the legislative affairs committee is creating a group of
professionally trained student lobbyists who will travel to Madison and even
Washington D.C. to influence legislation benefiting student interests.
Along
with student interests, Hoffmeister said that SGA will be meeting with
landlords around the Stevens Point area to make the city a “just place to live”
for students.
SGA
will also be revisiting regulations concerning workers rights and cutting UWSP
contracts with places that use sweatshop labor.
Hoffmeister
said that one of SGA's biggest concerns last semester was the presidential
election and getting students out to vote. SGA created the Student Vote
Coalition in order to register as many students as possible to vote and become
educated voters by Election Day.
Hoffmeister
said that UWSP registered the most students percentage-wise out of all the UW-System
schools.
SGA
elections will be held on Friday, March 15th at 8 a.m. through
Thursday, March 21st, ending at 4 p.m.
For
any students interested in joining SGA, applications to be on the senator and
presidential ballot are open. Hard copies of the completed application are due
in the SGA office by 5:00 PM, Friday, February 15,
2013.