SGA recommends recycling service for off-campus apartment complexes
The Student Government Association passed a resolution Monday to recommend landlords of off-campus apartment complexes to provide recycling services to their residents.
“A Resolution Supporting Equal Recycling Services for Off-Campus Residents” passed unanimously through both the SGA house and senate, and will be sent to the Mount Pleasant city commission, area landlords and university administrators.
During the discussion of the resolution at the house meeting, Muskegon senior and SGA vice president Dave Breed said no off-campus apartment complexes in the city of Mount Pleasant or Union Township offer recycling service.
“It’s nice for us, because now we have a unified voice saying this is what the student body wants,” Breed said. “It has been 20 years that they have been trying on and off to do something with recycling and it never seems to take. Going green and sustainability ... has been such a big movement that we’re hoping this will be the year.”
Previous to passing this resolution, SGA collected 3,000 signatures on a petition in support of recycling services at apartment complexes.
SGA president Brittany Mouzourakis said the poll of on-campus students conducted for the final report of the presidential transition team, of which she is a member, revealed environmental sustainability is one of the top five student priorities.
“Now is the time," Mouzourakis said. "There is really a green movement going through campus and this was evident in the transition team survey. I guarantee that five years ago, that would not have been one of the top five student priorities.”
After a campaign by the SGA Student Services Committee, the Isabella County Material Recovery Facility has agreed to a 2 percent grant to measure the cost-effectiveness of recycling service at one area apartment complex. Which apartment complex would take part in the study has not yet been determined.
SGA presidential and vice presidential requirements changed
Also at Monday’s meetings, both houses of the SGA passed legislation to raise the GPA requirements for its president and vice president, although they did not agree on a number.
Both positions, which come with a 12-credit-hour scholarship, require a minimum 2.5 GPA. The legislation called for the minimum GPA to be raised to 3.0, and passed as such through the house. The senate passed the bill, but amended the minimum GPA to 2.75.
To rectify the difference between the two versions of the legislation, “a special committee forms ... and they have to work out a compromise between the two, or else it just dies,” Mouzourakis said.
Both Breed and Mouzourakis were in favor of raising the minimum to 3.0, since the minimum GPA to receive scholarships range from 2.75 to 3.25.
“It holds SGA presidents and vice presidents just as accountable as anybody else with a full-tuition scholarship on campus,” Mouzourakis said. “2.5 is lower than any other scholarship on campus.”
