Parliament passes four resolutions

Recovery housing, changes to the election code, the Ambler shuttle bus and student pledge were all voted in.

Temple Student Government’s Parliament passed four of the six resolutions on their agenda Monday, the most the representative body has passed since its established in January.

A resolution calling for the authorization of Parliament to edit TSG’s elections code was brought to the floor by multicultural representative Bridget Warlea, after being tabled in March. The elections code would also need to be approved by a group of Parliament representatives: the speaker and each committee chair. It passed by a vote of 24-1, with one abstaining vote.

A resolution calling for the “exploration of an option for recovery housing” on Temple’s campus was passed unanimously. Junior representative George Basile, who brought the resolution to the floor and became emotional when it passed, said during the debate portion of the meeting that recovery housing “would set precedent among other colleges in the nation.”

Currently, 15 universities in the United States have recovery housing options available for students recovering from addiction or substance abuse. None of the universities are in Pennsylvania.

“I’m deeply grateful my colleagues were so supportive of my recovery housing bill,” Basile said after the meeting.

Commuter representative Thomas Roof, introduced a resolution that was passed unanimously in asking the Department of Operations to release statistics regarding “student volume on the intercampus shuttles” that run between Main Campus and Ambler Campus.

The Department of Operations recently extended their evening hours but cut back on their morning hours. Shuttle service between the two campuses now begins at 9:45 a.m., which is inconvenient for commuter students with early morning classes, Roof said.

A resolution submitted by at-large representative Jeremy Goodman to revise the current student pledge to include the word “inclusivity” was passed unanimously by Parliament.

A fifth resolution, which called for a decrease in sexual assault case length for sexual assault survivors, which currently take about 4 to 6 months to be heard, was tabled pending the revision of an amendment to clarify some of the language.

The final resolution on the agenda, calling for Temple to “oppose any legislation that singles out and tries to delegitimize any ethnicity, race, sex, religion, person or student group” was tabled. It will be debated at the next Parliament meeting on April 17.

“[Tonight] was a top notch example of what good and effective student advocacy looks like,” said Jordan Laslett, speaker of the Parliament. “I’m very proud of the Parliament.”

“I was proud to see the democratic process hard at work tonight,” added Basile. “Thoughtful debate was a common theme. I was glad to see a number of very important initiatives pass.”

Amanda Lien can be reached at amanda.lien@temple.edu.

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