Council member of the month, upcoming events, and new committees

The Utah Valley University Student Association met to discuss some upcoming events, newly added academic committees, and named the “council member of the month.” 

After discussing some moments from the week, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ General Conference and the attending and working American Sign Language interpreters who were UVU Professors and Alumni; the council heard a presentation from Parliamentarian Mckell Newkirk. 

After the presentation, the council presented the Council Member of the Month award to James Stoddart, who serves as the College of Science Senator, he also received the UVUSA weekly “Compliment Crown” simply explained as a metallic crown and sash the chosen member wears during the meeting/week. 

The council then focused on upcoming events such as Insomnia– UVU’s Halloween party– which Bryson Finley, Vice President of Student Activities, called, “The biggest Halloween party in Utah.” During the overview of the event, Finley stated they had bought a 15 ft phantom decoration in preparation for the event. Next was a discussion of a possible costume competition that is said to help “gain followers” for the UVUSA Instagram. The UVU Business School was discussed as potentially being highlighted via their instagram account soon to bring more light to the department, and the “Competitions they’ve won”.

Other events discussed included the Family Fall Festival, the UVU American Sign Language Club Halloween get-together, and the next Lemonade with Lexi. The council briefly talked about the previous meeting and the discussion headed by UVU Athletics on a Willy the Wolverine name change. The vote was 12 against the change and six who abstained.

The council then began a conversation about new Academic Committees. Jaden Muir, Vice President of Academic Senate, first announced the Academic Scheduling Committee which was created during the week. According to Muir, their purpose will be to have an “Equal Distribution of credits among all majors.” Muir stated that UVU’s general credit guidelines were set up around 35 years ago. However, this process will take until 2024 to be implemented for students according to Muir. Next was the Academic Calendar Committee, which talked about what UVU class schedules could look like for students in the future. 

The spotlight then went to Ava Gonzalez, the Inclusion Chair, where she discussed a Sex Education flyer that could be placed in bathrooms across campus. According to Gonzalez, the campaign will be focused on sexual consent. This has been approved by the campus Title IX office but it is unclear when the plan to distribute flyers will be put into action. 

Also brought up a possible future event that is said to be round table style, talking with the Herbert Institution about the latest campus speaker, former Vice President Mike Pence. Gonzalez also discussed a democratic club being in the works on campus, supposedly similar to UVU Turning Point USA. 
To finish the meeting one member talked about a Water Use Awareness Campaign to begin soon and the council voted on the meeting minutes and the meeting ended. Before they sang the UVUSA traditional end-of-meeting UVU Fight Song, Lexi Soto, the student body president, implored the council to attend the “Why It Matters” U.N. Conference that occurred that day.