At its final meeting of the year last week, the Freshman Council passed three bills to make the university safer and greener.
The first bill, FROSH-04-07, would encourage UT and the City of Knoxville to place a left-turn signal on the intersection of Volunteer Boulevard and Andy Holt Avenue.
“(The intersection) is potentially hazardous for eastbound drivers due to the knoll on the southern side of the stoplight,” the bill reads.
Andrew James, the bill’s sponsor and an undecided freshman, said he thinks this intersection is unsafe because a person making a left turn from Volunteer Boulevard onto Andy Holt Avenue has to turn blindly.
“If you are driving on Volunteer and you have to turn onto Andy Holt, there is a pretty good chance you will get smashed,” James said.
The bill will prompt UT and Knoxville to place a turn signal at the intersection in hopes of cutting down traffic accidents. There was no debate for the bill, and it was called to vote and passed unanimously.
James presented another traffic bill, FROSH-05-07, to address the intersection of Caledonia Avenue and 21st Street.
“This is another place where cars speed, and there is still a good chance you will get hit,” James said.
While going east on Caledonia, toward Reese Hall, a driver will have to cross 21st Avenue. At this spot, the driver cannot see south down 21st, James said. He said he wishes to add a four-way stop at this intersection to reduce the number of traffic accidents there and make UT more accessible for drivers. This bill was also called to a vote without debate, and it passed unanimously.
The final bill was a Campus Beautification resolution that would help replace foliage on campus.
Bill FROSH-07-07, sponsored by Chelsea Goodson, a freshman in business, urges the university to replace each tree removed for construction purposes with two new trees.
The bill comes as a response to the “Make Orange Green” program, which encourages improvements in areas of environmentalism and campus beautification. It was drafted because Goodson said she feels the removal of trees is counterproductive to the “Make Orange Green” program.
“In case you have not noticed, there is a lot of concrete on campus. (All the construction on campus) removes trees without replacing them,” Goodson said.
She said she watched campus workers remove a tree in the Hess courtyard, and was thus influenced to write the bill.
“When they took this huge tree down at the courtyard at Hess, I yelled, ‘tree murderers,’” Goodson said.
She said she felt the need to keep the campus from turning into a concrete block.
The bill was up for vote without any debate, and it too passed unanimously.
Freshman Council Chair Zak Kelley said the bill will be passed through the ranks of SGA and will hopefully go into effect next year.
And, with a motion to dismiss, a second approval and a swing of the gavel, the work of the 2006-2007 Freshman Council was officially over.
