On Thursday, Oct. 10, the United Student Government (USG) had a meeting in which the sophomore senators detailed their plans and progress for their initiatives this semester.

During the senate reports, Senator Chirayu Shah, GSB ’21, proposed a sheet for clubs and organizations with a live information platform. The sheet aims to streamline processes related to clubs, such as actions taken by the budgeting and operations committees.

Senator David D’Onofrio, FCRH ’22, continued his work on an initiative to bring a dining option into Walsh library to provide another option besides the vending machines. The initiative was passed through the USG with a unanimous vote, barring one abstention. D’Onofrio intends to work with library staff in contacting Aramark to continue work on this initiative. Additionally, he proposed an initiative to provide vending machines stocked with feminine hygiene products in bathrooms on campus.

Senator Liam Leahy, FCRH ’22, discussed his goal of rewriting Fordham’s alcohol amnesty policy in order to provide a version for students that would lessen confusion.

“The current alcohol amnesty is worded in a way that is confusing to students, and depending on where you look, be it Fordham’s website or inside the CARE manuals, you might find conflicting information on whether Fordham will protect you,” he said.

His new version of the alcohol amnesty policy would eliminate or explain contradictions or inconsistencies between the online medical amnesty policy and the Campus Assault and Relationship Education (CARE) alcohol amnesty policy from this year and the previous year.

In addition, Senator Arianna Chen, FCRH ’22, spoke about her current research with the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program on the state of gender pronoun policies across departments on campus as well as other Jesuit universities. Currently, although a student is able to come to a professor and request pronouns that do not align with their legal or academic records, it is not mandatory in some departments for the professor to use these preferred pronouns. She explained that this research would hopefully be used in a future proposal to make a gender pronoun policy mandatory in all departments.

Senator Luke Morgan, GSB ’22, discussed the current work the Communications Committee is doing on a newsletter focusing on the USG and its initiatives. He also proposed an outdoor bulletin board at Walsh Gate, to give commuting students easier access to information about campus events.

Finally, Senator Matthew Heutel, GSB ’22, brought forward an initiative to install more hand sanitizer stations in academic buildings on campus in order to reduce the spread of illnesses. In addition, due to an earlier discussion regarding the USG election process, the USG created the Election Procedure Commission, which now plans to update what the Senate said was an outdated election processes.