Student senate introduced three new pieces of legislation to be discussed and confirmed two new senators to fill vacant seats due to resignations at its weekly meeting on Wednesday.
The legislation introduced would address extending the hours of Thomas Cooper Library during finals season, increasing awareness about university transportation services and allocating student organization funding.
The first bill, SBL 21, is aimed at keeping Thomas Cooper Library open for 24 hours during the week leading up to final examinations so that students can have access to a quiet study space around the clock.
“There's a lot of students who live on campus that rely on these spaces, so to be closed during that crucial week is something that I feel that needs to change,” academics committee chairwoman Emma Creed, a co-sponsor of the bill, said.
The other co-sponsor of the bill, senator Tyler Morgan, agreed with Creed and said the library is an important resource for those students.
“The point of the university is to be there to provide the resources for the students to succeed no matter what these resources look like,” Morgan said.
The bill was referred to the academics committee for debate and vote.
The second piece of legislation that was put onto the senate floor, SBL 22, is aimed at working with various university offices to increase awareness through University 101 classes about transportation services that are offered on and around the university, such as Gateway Shuttles, BullStreet District Park & Ride and the various shuttle routes accessible through the TransLoc app.
“It's specifically just saying there's a lot of things available that people need to know about. And this would more or less just allow us to begin working with the U101 office and Sustainability Carolina to begin to create a curriculum of sorts to raise awareness within our U101 classes about these resources that we have that most students, especially freshmen, are not aware of,” senator Nick Harvey, one of the bill's sponsors, said while speaking on the bill.
The bill was referred to the health and safety committee and the sustainability committee for debate and vote.
A third piece of legislation, SBL 23, would permit the senate's finance committee to allocate $22,898.04 to eight different student organizations, and the senate unanimously voted by acclamation to enact the bill.
The student organizations that will receive funding from the bill are the Anthropology Student Association, Society of Women Engineers, Surf Club, Mock Trial Team, International Soccer Club, Freedom Riders Organization, Alliance for Women in STEM and MedElem.
The senate also confirmed two new senators to its body — first-year political science student Ellie Tanner and first-year exercise science student Aidan Gruner.
Both senators said they joined student senate to be able to make a difference for students.
“My goal is to hopefully be able to work with others to pass legislation to improve student life and student safety," Gruner said. "I believe that's the core of any student life on campus is knowing that you can feel trusted and that the campus is safe, and so I hope to work to improve those qualities.”
Tanner said that one of her main goals is to advocate later closing times at dining locations across campus.
“One thing that I really talked about in my interview I was passionate about is dining halls being opened later because I have a night class on Tuesdays that doesn't end until nine o'clock, so it's unfortunate when everything's closed,” Tanner said.
The addition of Gruner and Tanner gets the student senate closer to being filled out, press secretary for the Speaker of the student senate Lauren Horton said allows for better representation.
“We're super excited to have these new senators as we move towards a full senate," Horton said. "They're coming in with a lot of fresh ideas to better our university and represent their delegations well, and we're super excited to have them and see what they do.”
Student senate meets weekly in the Russell House Theater at 5:30 p.m. These meetings are open to all students.