Members of the Missouri Students Association, Residence Halls Association, Legion of Black Collegians and Graduate Professional Council came together to discuss three pieces of legislation at the MSA sponsored Joint Session Meeting on Thursday night.
RHA President Zack Folk presented the first piece of legislation, which discussed sexual health and safety products funding.
In the fall of 2008, six sexual health product dispensers were installed in seven residence halls: Gillett, Mark Twain (currently under construction), Center, Wolpers, Lathrop and Bingham Commons, according to [a previous Maneater article.](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2008/12/9/condom-plan-reaches-climax/)
The funding to maintain these dispensers is running out. Currently, both RHA and MSA have provided the $9,000 every school year to fund the dispensers. Folk said they do not have sufficient funds to maintain the services because the costs are almost 15 percent of RHA’s $65,000 budget.
“Because of this we want to propose a resolution to ask the university to assist us in funding the sexual health and safety products,” he said.
According to a study conducted by the Student Health Center, students in residence halls without these dispensers have a higher number of sexual partners, a higher probability of students engaging in unsafe sex and a higher chance of students contracting HIV or AIDS, Folk said.
With this in mind, Folk said it is important to maintain and possibly expand the services, but RHA’s limited budget currently prevents this.
The four governments approved the legislation unanimously.
LBC proposed a resolution supporting the creation of a black studies major at MU. Currently, students can pursue an interdisciplinary studies major, minor or certificate for the discipline.
LBC President Greer Relphordel said 400 universities nationwide have black studies as a major and not having the major reflects negatively on MU as a whole.
The resolution passed unanimously by all four governments.
The last piece of legislation proposed was a resolution supporting the creation of a syllabus archive.
MSA Academic Affairs chairman Ben Levin proposed the legislation in response to the National Council on Teacher Quality’s lawsuit against MU for not releasing class syllabi.
Levin said the archive would allow students to read through syllabi before enrolling in a class.
“To find out what a class is about, you have to sign up, show up and have (the teacher) read the (syllabus) to you. We don’t think it’s necessary,” Levin said. “You should be able to see what the course is … before enrolling.”
Levin also said this archive, which would be updated annually, could show the evolution of classes throughout the years.
The resolution was passed by all four student governments.
The meeting ended with MSA Senate Speaker Jake Sloan passing the gavel to GPC President Kristofferson Culmer, who will lead the next joint session meeting.