Tuesday evening, the 2018-2019 Student Government Association (SGA) Senate held their first official meeting from 6 to 8 p.m.
The meeting began with Dean of Students Shea Kidd-Houze talking about some changes at UT, including change in administration and the moving of 974-HELP to the Dean of Students’ office.
Kidd-Houze also touched on five of the six themes she said were in her plan for the university, including working on the first year experience, case management, faculty engagement, mattering and belonging.
After Kidd-Houze’s opening speech, junior in College Scholars and East Area Senator Owen Flomberg and junior in communication studies Kennedy Elaine Sanders gave a presentation about new organization “The ORG” (Organizational Resource Group), which was developed to provide a systematic way for student organizations to communicate.
In the open town hall, sophomore in political science Grey Mangan discussed the recent Princeton Review ranking of UTK as 3rd in LGBTQ-unfriendly campuses, speaking on his own experiences of feeling unsafe on campus and on the deaths that have resulted from oppression of the LGBTQ community.
Jack Huddleston, junior in finance with a concentration in leadership, spoke after Mangan, expressing his strong opposition to the passing of SEN-2-18, a bill that would ban the use of Styrofoam and plastic straws from Vol Dining facilities, which was to be discussed later in the meeting.
“I would encourage this student body to focus on issues that really matter,” Huddleston said. “Our student union closes at 8 p.m., which is the earliest closing time in the SEC. Our sorority girls don’t have a bus ride to the football games; they have to walk two miles to the stadium.”
Emma Heins, junior in geology and environmental studies, disagreed, explaining that the measure would not ban all straws. Instead, the bill would allow students with disabilities or who have another reason to use straws to request straws from dining locations. Heins also argued for the environmental benefits, mentioning that Tennessee has already lost its ability to filter salt because of the plastic in the water.
With the senators moving to push discussion of the bill to later in the meeting, SGA president and senior in political science Ovi Kabir took the floor to discuss the success of the Water for Neyland initiative, which was rolled out at the first home game last Saturday, future plans for expanding on students’ security, elevating student programming and meeting senators one-on-one.
After updates by president of senate and senior in chemistry Haley Paige and treasurer and senior in nuclear engineering Matthew Herald, there was some debate by the senators over the 2018-2019 SGA Senate mission statement, which the senators moved to be concluded later by the SGA executive branch.
Flomberg then moved to recognize and pass SEN-02-18, also known as RAFAS (Remove All Foam and Straws).
The bill mentions “comparable” universities, such as Auburn and North Carolina State, that have already banned styrofoam from their campus dining facilities.
The bill was under heavy debate, with College of Nursing senator and senior in nursing Austin Smith moving to amend the bill by striking out a clause. The amendment failed to get the number of votes needed for approval.
With a 24-12 voting count, SEN-02-18, or RAFAS, was passed.
Shortly after, Smith introduced SEN-01-18, which would require SGA senators to be registered to vote in either home county or Knox County. After some resistance from other senators, Smith moved to table the bill until the next session.
Emma Boyle, College of Social Work senator and junior in social work and political science, had voted for the bill to be passed.
”I feel like we create a lot of waste on campus,” Boyle said. “I get (the opposing) side of the debate, but I feel like there are some things we can do as a student body and as a campus to become more environmentally friendly. (Limiting straw use) is just a small thing we can do, but it is something we can do to help create that more sustainable effect.”
Huddleston, who had opposed the bill from the beginning of the meeting, expressed his dissatisfaction and lack of surprise at the outcome.
“I believe we are Tennessee; we need to act like Tennessee values in this Senate. We hardly have any,” Huddleston said. “We have real issues to tackle rather than voting to ban plastic straws, which the bill presenter even said is not a major environmental threat. It’s actually a minuscule threat, and here we are wasting our time for thirty minutes to have an open debate (on) whether or not to ban plastic straws.”
Believing that plastic straws are not an environmental issue and that banning them is unnecessary and will make students angry, Huddleston had much criticism for the new SGA Senate.
“I think this body is full of hot gas; I think it’s 90 percent hot gas, ten percent confident,” Huddleston said. “Tonight further proved that. We spent 15 minutes on amending the grammar on the mission statement and then we proceeded to ban plastic straws. I think this is the most dysfunctional student body I’ve ever been a part of in my life.
“I’m not surprised at all, but I think we need to continue to work towards doing better,” Huddleston added.
Arden Gillchrest, representing the College Arts and Architecture, states his opinion on the plastic straw debate at the SGA Senate meeting on Sept. 11, 2018.
