Hume Senator's Report
Ben Cavataro
Hume Senator
cavataro@ufl.edu
December 4 Senate Update
*Legislative business
**The Renewable Energy Fee Resolution passed! The Senate's unanimous
approval on the resolution moves the resolution on to the Board of
Trustees and state government for action.
**I have been regularly attending Judiciary Committee meetings to
discuss and suggest changes to pending legislation before it reaches
the Senate floor. I plan to apply for a Judiciary Committee seat
that
will open up in the spring
**I wrote SB2007-1114, the Resolution Honoring Dr. Robert Cade (the
late UF professor and inventor of Gatorade)
**In cooperation with Chomp the Vote Executive Director Frank Bracco,
I cosponsored SB2007-1115, the Chomp the Vote Statutory Creation
Act.
The resolution establishes it Chomp the Vote (Student Government's
nonpartisan student voter registration drive) as an official SG
agency.
*Plans for spring semester
**Take up legislation allocating funds of new bike racks (this has
been delayed by construction in front of Hume)
**Introduce legislation directing the Research Cabinet to
investigate
the support for and feasibility of online voting for Student
Government elections
**Work on online appointments for academic advising
**Work to make the Student Government website more useful, and to
post
new legislation online
**Work with SHO on the possibility of sponsoring monthly meetings at
Hume Commons for residents to make suggestions and tell me what they
want from Student Senate
If you have any comments or suggestions, or want to arrange a
meeting
with groups or as an individual, email me at cavataro@ufl.edu. All
feedback is valued.
Have a safe and happy holiday season.
--Ben
October 20 Senate Update
• Sworn in as a member of the Student Senate on Oct. 9.
• Became a member of the ad hoc Sustainability Committee; applying to become a member of the Judiciary, Allocations, or Budget standing committees
• Co-sponsored first piece of legislation with the Sustainability Committee—a resolution in favor of adopting a statewide Renewable Energy Fee (50 cents per credit hour) at state universities, which passed with 78 percent of the vote in the UF elections in spring
• In talks with Physical Plant Director David O’Brien to obtain funds for bike racks for Hume. Additional bike racks paid for with SG funds will help alleviate the bike parking shortage at Hume since several racks were removed for construction in summer.
• Working with Senate President Kevin Reilly on information technology—improving Webmail (possibly through talks with Google on adopting Gmail) and improving the SG website to make it more useful
