On Halloween 2022, the UW-Whitewater Student Government began their meeting in the University Center, room 259 as per usual. This week, however, the organization brought in guest speakers who were representatives from UWW Dining services. 

“We want everyone to learn as much as they can at each station,” said guest speaker and new executive director of dining Mr. Brant Keel regarding the employees that work in dining services. The WSG  had the dining services come in as guest speakers to conduct a Q&A which allows for senators to ask questions. Of these topics covered, one of the most asked questions was about staffing and that students have noticed that Stack Burger has not been open as much as in the past. When asked about this issue, the directors informed the senators that due to staffing issues, they are physically unable to hire enough students on their staff to cover shifts. They also made the point that this is not an isolated issue on campus, but is a problem throughout the entire country. With this knowledge, the senators asked another important question, how students are able to access the accurate hours of operation for each dining option. The directors replied that they post physical copies and they are also working on their social media platforms that students should be on the lookout for in the coming weeks.

The WSG then turned to new business discussing a new bill they want to pass about anti-hazing education entitled: S22-23:03 Act Establishing Anti-Hazing Education for UW-Whitewater. If the bill is passed, it would call for all students including greek life, student orgs, and sports teams to get educated on the effects of hazing to keep as many students as safe as possible. 

“Time to create a universal plan for a campus wide initiative; this is education for everyone” said Vice President Max Servais who testified in support of the bill. Although there haven’t been any horror stories on this topic at Whitewater there is still hazing going on that is unknown to the public and could be deadly if left unchecked. 

“It’s our responsibility,” said Justin Wesolek on why this bill should be passed. Hazing is defined as, “any action taken or situation created, intentionally or unintentionally, on or off-campus that produces mental or physical injury, discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule.” This bill is hoped to be propped by December 16, 2022, and would be able to stop hazing from happening in all parties of the whitewater campus life. This bill is in hopes of being passed because as of right now, there isn’t a universal education that is able to be given to students on this campus, and although the senators aren’t pointing out specific groups, these acts of hazing can impact anyone on campus. 

Overall, these meetings are put in place to debrief with the senators about bills and to inform the senators via the use of guest speakers. This meeting in particular was set up to not only have a guest speaker with a Q&A but also to go over a new bill that is planning on being in place to help with the education of students on hazing. To find out more about WSG, their meetings are held each week at 7pm in the UC in room 259.