By Beau Bowman
[email protected]

The University of Iowa Student Government met for a short session followed by introductory committee meetings on Tuesday evening.

Speaker of the Senate Brendan Power called the meeting to order and went over some of the old business missed in the last meeting.

Vice President Morgan Brittain then swore in new Sen. Todd Johnson.

The Senate then listened to Clinical Assistant Professor of social work Motier Haskins talk about increasing cultural competency for future UI graduate students.   

Following that, Sen. Grant Laverty introduced a bill that would split the Student Life Committee to shift the workload on the current committee.

This new committee would then focus on one of two student safety issues: student mental health, which members addressed in the last meeting, and sexual assault.

Which issue the new committee will tackle has not yet been decided. During discussion, senators said whichever issue was not assigned to the new committee would stay in the old one.

“This bill creates a standing committee for student safety, which, in student government, ought to be something that we give standing resources to,” Laverty said. “We see this as something students have voiced their opinion on in the past and will continue to in the future. We thought it would be important to create standing resources to [address] the issue.”

Sen. Geo Liriano supported the bill, saying, “The concern of student life is very complex; it takes a lot of people to manage that.”

Sen. Mike Kessler opposed the bill.

“By voting for this bill, it’s saying that we don’t think the university will ever be safe,” he said.

Kessler questioned the bill’s necessity and its feasibility, saying creating a committee wouldn’t be as easy as it sounded.

“I don’t see the problem in being constantly worried about our students,” said Sen. Hallee Haygood, who supported the bill.

After the bill passed, Laverty noted that the process worked.

“We came to a pretty concise agreement after we hashed everything out and came to a consensus,” he said.

The bill was voted in almost unanimously, with only a few senators opposing it.

Last week, UISG voted no confidence in the state Board of Regents’ decision to select Bruce Harreld as the next UI president, joining the graduate student government and the UI Faculty Senate.

UISG’s upcoming schedule

Sept. 22: UISG/Graduate & Professional Student Government Assembly in the Old Capitol, 7 p.m.

Sept. 29: Senate meeting in the University Capitol Center, 7 p.m.

Oct. 6: Committee meetings in the University Capitol Center, 7 p.m.

Oct. 13: Senate Meeting in the University Capitol Center, 7 p.m.