Slightly more than one month after his inauguration, Colorado Robertson, Student Government president, is actively working toward the goals laid out during his campaign.
Robertson said his office has already accomplished some of the tasks, including free snow cones, scantrons and tutors during finals week.
Robertson called all of these initiatives a “great success.” Robertson said his biggest goal for the summer is working on legislation to reduce students’ taxes on PAW points, tiger cash, meal plans and textbooks. “We’re working on the resolution, so we’re going to start preparing official memorandums to go to the Metro Council to see if we can get the 5 percent local tax taken off,” Robertson said. Letters from the Chancellor’s office will be sent to the Metro Council urging these resolutions be passed, Robertson said. Robertson and SG Vice President Shannon Bates recently returned from an American-Israel Public Affairs Committee convention in Washington, D.C. Robertson said he was asked to attend the convention by Tigers for Israel, an on-campus student organization. “We were more than willing to attend,” he said. “We have a really strong and active Tigers for Israel on campus, and we learned a lot about Israel.” Robertson said there were other benefits for attending. “We were able to meet 185 student leaders from around the country,” he said. “And while we were there, we were able to meet with our congressman, and we lobbied for [House Resolution] 3512, which is the textbook act.” The College Textbook Affordability and Transparency Act requires publishers of textbooks to inform professors of what changes were made to updated versions, if the books are available in paperback and what the price will be. It also mandates books be unbundled, with accompanying supplements sold separately. Robertson said his office is currently working to extend the library hours. “We have verbal commitments from the administration to extend the library hours next fall,” Robertson said. “We’re still in final negotiations on the exact time.” Robertson said campus transit and dining options will also be shifted to reflect the change in hours of operation. “Hopefully, it will stay proportional,” Robertson said. “So after the library closes, you’ll still have an hour to take campus transit.” Bates said she is working on planning meetings with all the student organizations on campus. “Over the summer, we’re working on getting all the organizations together and seeing what times they’re planning on meeting,” Bates said. “We’re going to create a schedule for all the organizations we’ll be at each week. Then I can take whatever concerns they have and bring them back [to SG].” Bates said she is also planning a “huge concert” for homecoming week. Robertson said though he is transitioning into office well, he has experienced some obstacles. “There are some hurdles that we didn’t expect when we were campaigning,” Robertson said. “The price of oil skyrocketed, which raised our bids for rain ponchos.” Micah West, Student Government chief of staff, said since ponchos are made of petroleum, they are more expensive than anticipated. “We have a big goal for $100,000 in pure money coming in from the outside,” West said. “But we do have one of our biggest new costs, which is rain ponchos.” The current lowest price per poncho is 55 cents, up 37 cents from the original price. “We got a quote last year of 18 cents,” Robertson said. “When I asked him if he would still honor it, he laughed at me.” Robertson said acquiring corporate sponsors is a main goal. “We have verbal commitments from on-campus organizations, but we need approval before we seek off-campus sponsors,” he said. Robertson said sponsorship is also needed for “Chats with the Chancellor” and other late-night programs. Robertson said he ran into trouble trying to renew the readership program on campus. “Student Government has a readership program on campus, and we fund The New York Times, The Financial Times, USA Today and The Advocate,” Robertson said. “The Advocate gave us a report back that they can’t supply the papers at the current price.” Robertson said he is also choosing not to supplement the program this year. “It’s been supplemented for the past four years, but the students voted a dollar in for newspaper, so we need to spend a dollar for newspapers,” he said. “If the senate wants to ask the students for another dollar, they can.” The readership program receives $50,000 from student fees and requires an additional $30,000 to operate. Robertson said he wants to re-invest that money into other programs. “The number of papers ordered will be cut, but I don’t know from where,” Robertson said. “Also, I asked the senators from the business college to consider other possible papers besides The Financial Times. It costs the most, and it’s the least used.”
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