On Oct. 2, Weber State University Student Association’s senate voted on two funding requests and addressed the swastika found in Shepherd Union.
Kayden Houser, Athletics and Club Sports senator, presented a funding request for Model United Nations’ upcoming National Conference in San Francisco.
The Model UN is a forum for students who advocate for “creating resolutions for real-world problems,” Houser said.
In a nearly-unanimous vote of 18 to 1, the senate voted to grant Houser’s funding request, contributing $4,000 to Model UN.
Alex Healy, Veteran Student senator, brought the second funding request to the table for $1,249 for the Veteran’s Day Dinner next month on Nov. 11. The funding would subsidize costs for specific student veterans and WSU alums with veteran status.
Additionally, $249 of the funding will be set aside for a veteran’s suicide awareness event.
“We want to make sure that we’re encouraging a mindful community of veterans, that people recognize that veterans are mostly people that suffer in silence,” Healy said before opening the room up for discussion.
In a unanimous decision, the Senate voted to fund Healy’s request.
Jessica Oyler, vice president for Student Access and Success, joined the senate to discuss a swastika found carved into a table in Shepherd Union on Sept. 27. Oyler addressed the importance of efficiently responding to incidents reported by students and giving students a platform to report these events.
“What we are working on now is putting together a website for what this protocol looks like moving forward, how we can track this,” Oyler said. “If you look at other institutions, they actually have websites that track what their incidents are.”
Oyler’s remarks come after an investigation by the WSU Police Department found that the swastika was first seen over a year ago, which makes it hard to determine who is responsible for the marking.
Students can download the Code Purple app to report a tip to campus police. Seth Cawley, chief of Weber State police, and the Department of Public Safety have several campaigns in the works, including conducting campus safety walks and an advisory council to discuss similar incidents.
On Oct. 9, WSUSA voted to cancel their senate meeting due to a lack of issues to vote on. WSUSA did not communicate to non-senators that the meeting was canceled, and many students were left waiting for the meeting to begin.
