Director of Housing and Residential Life John Sears said, during last night’s senate meeting, that the recent review, by the office of internal audits, would help to fix current problems with student housing by creating policies and procedures that previously had never been officially “written down”.
The office of internal audits made 48 recommendations that HRL intends to implement in an effort to improve the department. A majority of these recommendations were surrounding written policy and procedure, something the department was already aware of and strives to resolve in the coming months.
Sears said that he hopes to be as transparent as possible with the results from the audit and encouraged everyone to read the public documents on the state audit website. One result of the audit, that was unanticipated by the department, was that students living in the Roger Williams Complex during the 2015-2016 academic year were overcharged an estimate of $327 for housing.
The overcharging was the result of a human error that went unnoticed. The error caused housing to charge residents the renovated B rate in the hopes that renovations would be complete. However, it was not approved and went through billing on e-Campus regardless. The day after the audit was released, students that were overcharged were notified, and within a few days all students were refunded the proper amount.
After Sears addressed the senate, a bill calling for the recognition of the Aquarium Club as a funded student organization was approved with only two abstentions.
There was deliberation surrounding the nature of the club whether it should be considered academic and unfunded or common interest and funded. Before voting senators questioned Club President Tyler Bulin about the formation of the club, how many club members there were, and what he envisions for the purposes of the club.
Another bill, which called for the recognition of the Korean Student Association as a funded student organization was moved to next week because a representative of the organization was unable to attend the senate meeting.
The senate also voted to approve several other bills. One would be sent to the Provost and Library for consideration of a request for the library to extend its hours on Sundays.
The bill calling for student senate opinion on extending Counseling Center services through a partnership with a national text or call crisis helpline was approved. Dr. Robert Samuels, from the Counseling Center, attended the senate meeting and explained the value in providing supplemental hours in instances where EMS and Police are left feeling limited when a decision for a student in crisis needs to be taken to the hospital or left in the dorm needs to be made.
From there the senate recognized a bill calling for the addition of a table of contents for an amendment of article XII of, and the addition of page numbers in, the constitution and bylaws of the University for Rhode Island Student Senate, Inc. was approved without deliberation.
President Cody Anderson made an amendment to a bill to change the finance chair’s control of funds as described in the senate bylaw to match that described in the finance handbook. Anderson requested to change the wording from “250.01-1000.00” to “250.00-1000.00” and “transfers of 250 or less” to “less than 250.” Senators will vote on this bill next week.