Charging station bill vetoed by executive council

Kaely Holloway

Debate dominated the floor of the Student Government Association on Tuesday night. In one night, a bill was presented, altered, passed and ultimately vetoed.

The bill’s purpose was to fund two of five KwikBoost charging stations, one at the Glasgow campus and the other in a WKU main campus library, as part of a partnership with WKU Libraries. The other three stations will be funded by WKU Libraries.

The total cost of these two stations would be a one-time payment of $1,598 to be taken from the senate discretionary portion of the budget.

Alexis Baker, the resolution’s author and newly appointed Campus Improvements committee head, presented the resolution to the senate.

“We all have iPhones, iPads — we’re very technologically oriented, so this would just help us,” Baker said. “It’s two stations that are going to have basically iPhone and iPad chargers in them for students to use at their leisure.”

The stations would also support other types of smartphone devices, coming equipped with eight different chargers.

Senator Cain Alvey proposed that one of the locations, which was originally set to be in the Helm 2 periodicals room, be changed to the Commons at Cravens library.

Baker said in response to this disagreement, WKU Libraries selected the five locations.

Mark Reeves, executive vice president, also defended the current location.

“I think part of the rationale for these four choices was that these were places where there’re fewer outlets, whereas the Commons, newly renovated, probably has more,” Reeves said.

SGA President Keyana Boka made a point before the vote that, should these stations prove to be popular, WKU Libraries would consider adding more.

Alvey proposed the change again during the debate session, ultimately having the change approved and passed by a majority vote.

“With this, Helm would get two of these KwikBoost stations, and my rationale behind suggesting the Commons at Cravens would be the traffic that goes through there,” Alvey said.

After the senate meeting was adjourned, however, the Executive Council proceeded to veto this legislation during their meeting.

It was vetoed on the grounds that SGA cannot change the locations of the stations, as it is a matter to be considered alongside their partner in the project, WKU Libraries.

Under SGA bylaws, the Executive Council can approve or reject passed legislation within a 14-day period. In the case of a veto, the senate has the opportunity to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote.

By requirement, a member of the Executive Council will report the veto to the senate next week for the potential for an override.