By: Jade Rayner News Editor
The Associated Students of Western Oregon University held a senate meeting on Monday, March 6. The meeting went over various topics including, but not limited to, hiring senate secretary, parking meters and drone usage on-campus.
A proposal to discuss a safe place on campus to fly drones was brought to the ASWOU Senate meeting because, “There is no safe place on campus for students to fly radio-controlled drones … there are at least 20 students and some faculty that would support there being a safe place on campus to fly … there are currently no guidelines for where students can fly their drones,” among other concerns.
A majority of the discussion on drone usage was centered around rules that would need to be put in place for on campus drone flying. One senate member was concerned about drones being used for inappropriate reasons.
“Even the cheapest drones that we sell at Home Depot, they have a mile radius. So it could be very easy for somebody to do something promiscuous or inappropriate with drones, which is why I’m bringing up this conversation; it’s one we need to have,” they went on to say.
Near the end of the senate meeting, a request that the ASWOU Senate President Corbin Garner attend the Monmouth city council meeting on behalf of Western students was placed. Specifically the meeting taking place on Tuesday, April 4, that will be discussing whether or not to declare Monmouth a sanctuary city.
Reasons for this request include “sanctuary cities are currently a pertinent topic … some WOU students may feel unsafe coming into the city of Monmouth for school … WOU is a sanctuary campus that is meant to help people feel safe and included … some WOU students have expressed their support for making Monmouth a sanctuary city” as summarized by the senate.
The request was examined, but not voted on during the senate meeting.
All ASWOU Senate meetings are open to students to bring up any issues, or discuss anything on their mind about Western. The ASWOU Twitter account advertised this opportunity using the hashtag #WOURantAboutIt on March 6. They can also be contacted by email at aswou@wou.edu.
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu
