KU Student Senate full assembly passed a vote to reinstate the campus-wide New York Times subscription at Wednesday's meeting.
The 52-week subscription will cost $12,896, which will be paid with Student Senate reserve funds. Samuel Sokoloff, Student Senate Chief of Staff, said he is happy to have the subscription back for students, staff and faculty.
“I'm ecstatic that I would no longer be receiving those emails. I'm glad that people are getting the New York Times back,” Sokoloff said.
Student Body Vice President Alessia Garcia said after passing the full assembly, the Student Senate Executive Board will work with the New York Times to bring the subscription back to campus.
“Exec. will work to finalize the contract with the New York Times, sign that up, and students will have access to the New York Times subscription once that is complete,” Garcia said.
Several other bills were passed unanimously to fund student organizations. The Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Graduate Student Association and KU Bowling both received $1,000. Additionally, Health International KU received $100, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) received $158.57.
A vote was passed on a bill amended by Turner Seals, Student Senate’s treasurer, which would increase the amount of funding allocated for student groups to use to purchase food from $200 to $500 per semester. This bill was also amended to allow student groups to now buy walkable items or hand-held electronic devices with Student Senate funding.
Sokoloff additionally presented a resolution, which passed a vote and will be sent to the KU administration as well as the Mayor of Lawrence to ask for a bike lane to be created on Jayhawk Boulevard. Sokoloff said his reasoning for this is because of the increased e-scooter usage he has seen on campus.
“I think that the adoption of these vehicles is going to only increase, and so I think that we need to start looking into that at least,” Sokoloff said.
On Thursday, the Office of the Provost will send out an email regarding a master plan for campus, according to Basak Alkan, project manager for the plan. Alkan is employed by Perkins&Will, an architecture company contracted by the University. Alkan said the intent of this survey is to understand campus through the eyes of the students.
“What kind of spaces do they need? What needs to change on campus? What needs to be preserved? What do they love? And things like that. And understanding also how they physically move around campus is going to be a big part of it,” Alkan said.
Mark Reiske, director of facilities planning and development, said this is the most input he has seen the University allow students to give in regard to previous master plans.
“The University has never reached out to students in this way for master plans,” Reiske said. “Never ever asked them for this much input. It's really a big deal.”
