By Tyler Mercer–

The University of Louisville’s Student Government Association met Tuesday Sept. 18 and began the meeting with a moment of silence for the late Anthony Flaherty, who served as SGA Senate Clerk until his passing on Sept. 12.

Sirena Wurth, SGA Services Vice President, spoke about the Parking Office here at U of L. During the meeting, Wurth said, “They are an auxiliary organization within the university. [They are] receiving no funding directly from the university.” The Parking Office gets the majority of its revenue from permit sales and tickets. Wurth described the very large amount of money it would take to build and keep a parking garage on the west side of campus by saying: “Over the course of a year it costs between $250,000 and $300,000 to upkeep a parking garage.” Parking also provides the free escort service for students.

The approval of the Central Administration Budget Resolution was defined as “setting the rules” on the $37,325 that will be available to RSOs on campus. Any RSO on campus should be able to go to the SGA President, Justin with a request for $200 or less and if approved the organization receives the money; however, if the requested amount is above $200, the request will be sent to the Appropriations Board. Language in the Budget Resolution was changed to include students who are not involved in RSOs.

The Green Fund Resolution was approved at the Sept. 18 meeting. This initiative would help to heighten awareness of Green events. “Primarily what it ends up being is providing more bike racks . . . having rain gardens on campus,” says Jacob Giesecke, SGA Law School President.

Giesecke continued, “Long-term, with this money, it would end up creating an endowment so that we could create and give projects to the university that are very specific in nature.” This money would be used to fund programs such as the Urban Planning Department at the School of Business and other programs benefiting sustainability. The Resolution was slated to only be a single dollar per student per semester.

Junior Political Science student, Ben Amarillas said, “It’s good that the university is encouraging green programs. It not only helps our environment when people bike to class, [but] it can also help with other issues, such as traffic congestion around the university.”The Resolution was motioned to be sent to the Executive Board and the motion was carried.

Those interested in hearing more about the meeting can view the recorded event through a link on the SGA website: uoflsga.org.

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Photo courtesy UofLSGA.com