On Thursday, the Undergraduate Student Senate passed a bill that would redraw senate districting lines and discussed their plans for various initiatives they want to implement in the upcoming school year.
Redistricting the senate
A bill was passed that would redraw the senate district lines, and will be effective started the first day of class. The restructured senate will have 44 open seats, with districts representing first-generation students, transfer students, majors categorically split up according to the UNC website, undeclared majors, Greek life, off–campus housing and on–campus housing that includes Granville Towers. In total there are 13 districts, while three of the districts have over two seats.
Ashley Molesworth, a member of the rules and judiciary committee, co–sponsored the bill with Tarik Woods, committee chairperson of rules and judiciary committee. Senate Speaker Katharine Shriver shared a statement from Woods concerning the bill.
“One of the largest concerns was about the Greek Housing district, because of the lack of representation,” Woods stated. “We amended this part from Greek Housing district, in creating Greek Life district, so that we can add seats and do not have to proportionate to the number of people living in Greek Housing.”
The Greek Life district has five seats open.
Molesworth said students running for a senate seat are not allowed to switch majors, add a second major or misrepresent a constituency to take a seat. If a student is found utilizing these methods, they will be subject to an investigation by the ethics committee.
“That way there's no really strict rules that really limits students if they do want to switch majors, generally, it just allows them to be free with their studies and also participate,” Molesworth said. “And then obviously the next session they were running for they would run in their new district instead of the one they were running in.”
Shriver said she was excited the bill was passed, but is expecting it to change with amendments over the years.
