By Erasmus Baxter
Disease is apparently rampaging through the Associated Students. AS President Simrun Chhabra, AS VP for Student Life Annie Gordon and AS VP for Academic Affairs Hunter Eider were absent from this weeks meeting.
- Past minutes were voted on but not approved.
- A vote on funding for a new food pantry was delayed because AS VP for Activities Julia Rutledge had been out for much of the last week and hasn’t had a chance to address some of the questions about funding, staffing and food purchasing raised at the last meeting. They plan to start the food pantry ASAP as the cabinet for it is already next to the Resource and Outreach Programs offices. It is believed an ROP work study employee will be in charge of the food pantry for now, but Rutledge still needs to meet with ROP Adviser Leti Romo about coordinating details, including how the breakdown of funding between the Associated Students and Sustainable Action Fund will work.
I’m pretty sure this is the cabinet. Erasmus Baxter//AS Review - This year’s environmental lobby day agenda will focus more on health and social justice, AS Environmental and Sustainability Programs Director Katie Winkelman told the board. This is as a result of student interest gauged through past and current assessments. “[There’ll be] less ecological sustainability and more focus on social justice and health,” she said. The three items they will be lobbying for are:
- Supporting a progressive carbon tax that is designed to not disproportionately impact low-income communities
- Model Toxics Control Act – a tax on hazardous waste that funds cleanup of toxic spills. There has been a shortage of funding for it in the last two years and toxic spills disproportionately affect low-income communities of color, Winkelman said. “Basically, we’re just asking them to help make up for a shortage of revenue,” she said.
- House bill 1171 which would commission an environmental health and impact study around Sea-Tac airport to look at ultra-fine particulate emissions from airplanes that can cause health issues. This would be a prerequisite for taking any further actions to help a community of color with double the national poverty rate, she said.
- AS VP for Diversity Erick Yanzon walked through the Ethnic Student Center Lobby Day Agenda which he had helped write with Ethnic Student Center Internal Coordinator Vicky Matey. It included:
- Supporting undocumented immigrants
- Supporting survivors of sexual violence
- Adding progressive revenue sources such as a progressive capital gains tax, and making sure tax revenue from pot sales and a carbon tax re-invest in communities of color. “We really wanted our agenda to focus on communities of color,” Yanzon said.
- Support for a tuition waiver for in-state Native American students, and the creation of a tribal liaison position at Western (something that Western says it is currently doing)
- Allinging eligibility of college bound scholarships with the state need grant
- Implementing ethnic studies curriculum in K-12 education. Yanzon said this was based on legislation that passed in to law in Oregon.
- The Disability Outreach Center lobby day agenda was reviewed. It included:
- Improving funding accessibility and disability services at public colleges and universities. While Western just received money in the capital budget for some upgrades, this would lobby for money not just at Western, but all state schools.
- Employment equality for people with disabilities, including changing current legislation that allows people with disabilities to be paid below minimum wage
- Also lobbying for the Model Toxics Control Act
- All three lobby days will take place over President’s Day weekend. Winkelman said all 23 slots were filled for the environmental lobby day. Yanzon said that 20 of the 25 spots for ESC lobby day had been filled.
- Committee appointments, which can be found on the agenda, were approved unanimously.
- Yanzon said ESC staff met with employees from the admissions office about collaboration and it went well. “I hope we see more of them,” he said.
- AS VP for Government Affairs Ana Ramirez said she was in Olympia for a mock committee hearing yesterday and she might be out of office in Washington D.C. next week
