The Senate will discuss a bill at Wednesday’s meeting that would direct Auxiliary Services to propose that the University of Houston System Board of Regents reduce the meal plan prices by 70 percent for homeless students. | File Photo/The Cougar

The Student Government Association Senate will discuss a bill Wednesday that would direct Auxiliary Services to ask the University of Houston Board of Regents to reduce the price of meal plans for homeless students by 70 percent.

The Homeless Student Relief Act indicates that 81 students at the University were certified as homeless by the 2018-2019 FAFSA.

Of the 81 students that are homeless, only 46 are enrolled for the Fall 2018 semester, according to documents to be presented at the meeting.

The bill asks that the number of students to receive the reduced meal plan price not exceed 50 every year. It also asks the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services to prioritize homeless students for the Cougar Experience Scholarship.

Homeless students who live on campus and have a mandatory meal plan would be exempt from purchasing one, according to the bill.

There will also be another election day reform bill for the Senate to consider. According to the bill, the current SGA elections occur the second Monday and Tuesday of February, the
third Tuesday and Wednesday of February and the fourth Wednesday and Thursday of
February.

In that system, students can only vote in those 48-hour periods.

“Three weeks of campaigning during elections would result in a disturbance
among constituents,” according to the bill.

The new bill, if passed at a later meeting, will direct voting to begin the third Thursday in February and end the following Wednesday. Physical campaigning would be prohibited.

The Senate approved sweeping election code reforms in April, which then created the three-week election clause.

In the past, president Cameron Barrett has said the last election’s campaign took a severe physical toll on him and others.

The Senate will also read a bill that would require the president to nominate five applicants for student regent and send them to the chancellor by Dec. 1 of every year.

Three students are up for committee appointments. The committees are the Campus Recreation Advisory Board, the Food Service Advisory Committee and Student Housing and Residential Life Advisory Committee.

news@thedailycougar.com

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“Senate to discuss reducing meal plan prices for homeless students” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar