At the end of their executive term last semester, former President Kyle Maclaughlin and former Vice President Dillion Peterson passed a resolution to allocate $2,000 of their remaining funds to be spent on outdoor electric space heaters.
At that time, the idea was to allow for these heaters to be used during outdoor events in places like Village Park and the Student Center shuttle lot to keep students warm during outdoor events.
The funding would’ve dried up anyways, according to Michael Gieseke, dean of student life, who said that any unspent funding is legally required to return to the university’s coffers at the end of the semester.
Now, Vice President Madigan Balfe says confusion and bureaucracy in Physical Plant is holding up the process of implementing the heaters.
“We have six heaters sitting upstairs [in the SGA office] for Village Park,” Balfe said.
Balfe told the legislature on Monday that Physical Plant did not want to install the heaters, and that it was not aware of any initiative to implement them.
“Physical Plant is a difficult office to work with,” Balfe said. “It’s actually very on-brand from our perspective.”
In an emailed statement to The Globe, Chris Hill, who serves as Physical Plant’s head of operations, said the office is not purposefully holding up the process of implementing the heaters.
Hill said a meeting has been arranged, and the office “just need[s] to make sure all the bases are covered.” He did not provide further comment.
The exact process behind the roll out of the heaters is also still unknown. President Christian Rangel said SGA is considering two measures: either some sort of checkout system or permanently implementing the heaters into Village Park.
On permanently installing the heaters, Balfe noted that Physical Plant was wary of keeping the heaters outside long-term, adding that the heaters don’t seem to be built for permanent installation. Rangel said he agreed.
“Electric heaters in general do not have a long lifespan,” he said. “And with anything that’s used that often, I don’t presume [them] lasting more than two years.”
Both said that if the heaters were to be distributed through some sort of check out system, they were not sure which office would handle check out operations.
Balfe said that the actual resolution which required them to purchase the heaters did not include plans on implementing them.
Beyond the heater issue, SGA had no new business to discuss besides planning future initiatives.
Treasurer Sam Fehl noted that the new trial winter funding period for student clubs will open on Dec. 1, the first day back from Thanksgiving break. It will conclude on Dec. 5.
Fehl added that the funding requests will be reviewed likely on or around Dec. 8.
That new winter funding period will run from Jan. 1 to Feb. 16, and will be followed by a new revised spring funding period at its conclusion.
The next SGA meeting will be held on Dec. 1 at 3:15 p.m. in Lawrence Hall 200.
