ASB president rejects Green Fund legislation

On Wednesday, Associated Student Body President Taylor McGraw rejected legislation for the Green Fund, which would have initiated student-led environmental sustainability projects in addition to the university’s sustainability initiatives.

The legislation, which was approved by the ASB Senate, stated the university’s current model for sustainability projects were unattainable unless a consistent source of funding was made available.

McGraw said that he supports the concept of the Green Fund, but he is concerned about the legislation’s funding mechanism.

“In principle, I am not a fan of mandatory student fees for narrow purposes,” McGraw said. “I like green projects, I really do, but I also think student programming, student organizations, student recreation, and I could go down the list, could use more money. A voluntary fee is a different story. I’m all for those.”

Taylor Cook, a member of Campus for Clean Energy said she believes McGraw’s concerns are viable.

“Taylor (McGraw) has been a very supportive and receptive to us as a student group so far, and I hope that he will continue to show his leadership by empowering students to make change, being a voice for us to administration, not the voice of administration, and help us move this forward to the administration who can help to make those more complicated implementation decisions, as only they can,” Cook said.

McGraw said he wants to see more specifics in the legislation instead of general topics, such as increasing clean energy usage and reducing carbon emissions.

“The Green Fund committee has done a ton of awesome work, but before the ASB pushes the university to commit to a Green Fund, I’d like to know exactly what the top priorities will be,” McGraw said.

The legislation included four options. One of the options would have created a student fee, which McGraw does not support. Another option would have allowed students to opt in to the system, with the university matching student funds. McGraw said the university-matching option would probably not work because student participation would fluctuate over time, which is not practical in terms of the university’s budget process.

“I think the way to go is to make a case to administrators during the annual budget process for why we need X amount of dollars for X projects,” he said. “Weigh the Green Fund idea against everything else and try to establish it as a priority.”

McGraw said he could not sign the bill because each of the proposed options included a measure that he did not support. An ASB senate committee will need to re-daft legislation for McGraw’s approval.

The ASB Senate can bypass McGraw’s rejection with a two-thirds vote to get the legislation to the chancellor.

McGraw does believe, however, that the issues with the legislation can be resolved, and everyone involved can move forward.