Posted by Kat Kullman
On March 8 the SGA Senate unanimously approved a resolution to allocate an additional $2000 to the Environmental Action Committee to help fund the club's trip to Power Shift, a movement to promote clean energy that will occur in Washington D.C. in April.
Senate recently granted the EAC $3,000 for this same trip. Initially only 60 students were expected to attend, but due to a large amount of interest in the program, the number has grown to approximately 90 students.
Anna Graves, '14 and Annie Bruckner '11 approached Senate to request the additional funds in order to house the additional students.
"Currently Skidmore is the largest group registered in New York, more than Columbia or NYU," Bruckner said, "This could start really great positive national press for Skidmore. And with this many people we could bring back what we learn to the student body."
Skidmore, in support of this trip, has increased the grant money from $2,500 to $5,000, and is providing buses to transport the students.
Students must pay a $50 registration fee upon signing up. "We're exhausting a lot of resources," Graves said. "We're fundraising, co-sponsoring with other clubs and each student is sending out a letter requesting support. We realize that we need to work for this."
The resolution was unanimously approved. All 90 students will be able to attend Power Shift in April.
In other news:
•Signs for the new gender-neutral bathrooms have been approved and will be installed during spring vacation. All single stall bathrooms on campus will be officially gender neutral upon the return of the student body.
•Senate unanimously approved a supplemental to allocate money from the JSS/Activism Civic Engagement Fund to senators Randy Abreu, '11 and Javi Calderón, '11.
•The senators requested $400 to open a library for a women's shelter in the Bronx. The library will house a literacy program, providing ESL and GED books. It will also provide books for neighborhood children.