From the Student Senate chambers this week: a COVID-19 update, a housing update, the swearing in of senators and two new bills brought forward on the floor.
Ellen Reynolds, the vice president of the University of Rhode Island’s Health Services, gave a presentation on the COVID-19 plan for the fall 2022 semester at the University.
Reynolds said that URI currently has a COVID-19 positivity rate of 0.8 percent and that the state of Rhode Island as a whole has a current positivity rate of 4.2 percent. Currently the state is in a moderate positivity rate for the number of increased cases, according to Reynolds, which is up from 3.8 percent positivity last week.
“We have an increase in cases but we’re hoping to correct that soon,” Reynolds said. “We’re hoping that was a blip with the holiday and that we’ll get right back to where we were, which was still high, but manageable.”
Reynolds also explained that when students test positive they either have to move home, or to the COVID-19 dedicated hotel that the University works in partnership with. Students who live in dorms will have the costs of the hotel covered by the University, however, off-campus students and students who live in Greek Life housing will have to pay for the cost of the hotel out of their own pocket.
Currently, Reynolds said that 95 percent of the University community is fully vaccinated, without counting the booster shot. The University is unaware thus far of issues concerning the omicron variant and the possible mandate of booster shots for both students and faculty and staff.
Also in attendance were Assistant Vice President Frankie Minor and Assistant Director of Assignments and Occupancy Dan Taylor of URI’s Housing and Residential Life Department.
According to Minor and Taylor, the issue of overcapacity for on-campus housing is a problem that is also facing the 2022-2023 academic year. The two came to the Senate hoping for advice from students of what to do in order to allow for more space.
Currently, the University allows for about 5,400 students to live on campus. According to Housing and Residence Life, historically freshmen make up about 3,100 spaces, sophomores make up 1,500 spaces, juniors take about 750 spaces and seniors take 375 of these spaces.
Because of these numbers, Minor and Taylor determined that for the 2022-2023 academic year, students will be given priority for living spaces on campus in descending cumulative credit order with exceptions to certain needs, like those who live far from Kingston.
Many senators rejected this idea for housing. Director of Treasury Chris Hoover brought up the idea of bringing back triple rooms in residence halls.
“[Getting rid of] triples reduced our capacity significantly,” said Taylor. “We are going to explore with our incoming students the option of voluntary triples.”
Seven new senators were also sworn in by President Bolu Taiwo.
New Off-Campus Senator Rebecca Greenbaum, who was nominated by both herself and At-Large Senator William Rider, was elected with 23 senators in favor and 3 abstentions. Greenbaum was not sworn in due to her leaving the meeting before its completion.
One new bill and one new resolution were also brought onto the floor during the meeting.
The bill called for an amendment to be added to the Student Senate finance handbook to remove the rule that first-year clubs get $25 for first night organizations, but remains to give first-year organizations $25 for recruitment and $50 for advertising. The voting on this bill was postponed to next week’s meeting.
The resolution called for the installation of recycling bins next to every trash can on campus. Voting on this resolution was postponed until next week as well.
The Senate will reconvene in its chambers next Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 6:30 p.m.