During Tuesday's meeting, the Associated Student Government (ASG) heard a presentation about a resolution supporting the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act.
The act would eliminate a distinction in current tax law that would allow charitable organizations to make grants to non-university-owned housing such as fraternities and sororities. ASG passed a resolution supporting the proposed act last April.
President of Panhellenic Council, senior Dana Shanley, went to Washington D.C. last year and will go again this April as part of the National Panhellenic Conference. Along with other students, she serves as an advocate for legislation that is important to the success of fraternity and sorority organizations across the country.
Shanley presented this act to Student Senate because it is currently on the legislative agenda that students will lobby for. The bill was brought to the attention of Congress in 2003 and continues to gain support, she said.
The act's aim is to allow donations that would facilitate the maintenance of Greek houses by installing sprinkler systems and other safety devices, according to bill and Shanley.
On Miami's campus, this bill will only apply to fraternity housing.
"It is particularly geared towards fraternity housing because the current tax designation directly discriminates against that," Shanley said.
Shanley said that the bill is applicable nationwide, and on other college campuses it will impact all on-campus housing.
"We are in a particularly unique situation because House Speaker Boehner is our representative, so we're trying to get as much support for this in Congress as we can," Shanley said.
Study Body President John Stefanski said Senate will vote on the bill at next week's meeting. ASG's passing of the bill will recognize their overwhelming support for legislation like it to be instated, but a positive vote will not allow the bill to actually go into effect.
Additionally in the meeting, ASG Treasurer junior Kyle Hees, along with sophomore senator Nathan Lombardi, presented a revision to the Audit bylaws as part of their work on the Funding Committee and Student Organizations. They presented an amendment to the current bylaws, which proposed that only those organizations that are spending the money they requested will be audited.
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Hees explained many organizations that are funded by ASG ultimately do not spend the money they are issued at the start of the semester. The funding committee realized this after initiating a series of random audits of various organizations. The lack of spending results in the unused money sweeping back to the funding committee at the end of the semester.
Both Hees and Lombardi said they hope that with this new legislation, money and time will no longer be wasted.
"It's going to make it more efficient, which makes our job in ASG a lot easier," Lombardi said.
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