As a senator from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, I was personally offended and appalled at the demeanor presented by the Orange and Blue party Senators concerning Student Government's bill in last Tuesday's senate meeting. Such disrespectful attitudes and comments directed toward my constituents by the Orange and Blue party have compelled me to write and inform the public of the situation.
On Tuesday, a bill (Senate bill 2009-1071) was presented to allocate to the Florida Museum of Natural History $60,000 from SG funds to bring a new exhibit to the museum's fall exhibition. Titled "Crime Scene Insects," the exhibit covers the topic of forensic entomology and how insects help solve many of the country's biggest crime scene mysteries. The exhibit appeals to the ever-popular CSI craze hitting the nation and is expected to draw more than 41,000 visitors to the museum. More importantly for my constituents, the exhibit is directly pertinent to many of the studies and areas of research that CALS incorporates as a college.
The $60,000 price tag buys free admission to the exhibit for all UF students. Further, the money will promise a return of advertisement, in the form of more than 750,000 print impressions, 75,000 sight impressions via banners and signage and logo space on the museum's Web site, which draws 16 million visitors annually.
On the floor, the Orange and Blue Senators expressed such concerns as the exhibit being only applicable to a small portion of the student body and hinted that the number of students who would attend will be a frivolous percentage of the student body population. While these are in no way the exact words that were spoken, this is the general attitude I witnessed from the Orange and Blue party, and I take personal issue with such a position.
My constituent college, CALS, is one of the largest colleges at UF. Further, CALS has 24 undergraduate majors, more than 50 areas of specialization and 20 graduate programs, and UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has extension offices in each of Florida's 67 counties. We stand as a flagship in the areas of food, agriculture, natural resources and life sciences. To write off the pertinence of the exhibit to the student body as anything less than significant is, in itself, a great travesty.
I stand to defend the interests of my constituents by supporting Student Senate bill 2009-1071.
