Illustration by Julia Berkman
Simon ThomasStudents for Zero Waste made a proposal to the Associated Students Board to vote on a resolution to support implementing a permanent ban on the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. There are currently no plastic water bottles sold on campus, but introducing this policy would ensure that does not change in the future.
AS Vice President of Student Life Anne Lee spoke in support of the board backing the policy during the meeting.
“This policy is just an institutionalized way of say that as a university, we stand behind this. Water is a basic human right, and for us as an institution to continue perpetuating the privatization of water is kind of ridiculous,” Lee said. “If Western really does stand for equity and justice, I think that this is another move toward those commitments.”
AS Vice President of Academic Affairs Levi Eckman also presented the results of a survey taken by Industrial Technology-Vehicle Design students affected by a proposal to put the program into moratorium. The departmental vote, passed in May 2018, affected the future of students currently in the department, who felt their voices were not heard before the decision was made.
Eckman’s data showed that 87 percent of the surveyed students said they were never made aware of the possibility of the program being placed in moratorium prior to the initial departmental vote.
The information items brought to the board ended with the Students for Ethnic Studies requesting financial support from the board’s reserves fund to host a banquet in Academic West on Nov. 27 from 6 to 7 p.m.
Eckman proposed a policy be made to ensure AS board members post enough office hours to ensure their accessibility to students. The board discussed the possibility of a pay reduction as a consequence to any member failing to post enough office hours.
Next AS Board meeting will be Friday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. in VU 567.
