Students living in Infinity Hall will have a voice in UF’s Student Senate next Fall.
The Senate amended the Fall 2016 Reapportionment bill, which decides the number of seats each district receives for re-election, to include a senator for the hall in the legislation at Tuesday’s meeting. It passed by unanimous consent.
Since September, senators have debated if Infinity Hall should have its own seat or be represented by senators from District A, which includes Sorority Row and housing east of 13th Street in the 32601 ZIP-code area. The dispute stems from Infinity Hall’s physical building location, which is off campus.
The mailing address, though, uses UF’s on-campus ZIP code, 32612. The building is also operated, but not owned, by UF.
Views on how Infinity should be represented were split along party lines. Most Impact and Swamp senators supported Infinity being in District A, while most Access senators supported a Senate seat, according to SG voting records.
With the addition of Infinity’s seat, District B, which is north of UF in ZIP codes 32603, 32605 and 32606, will lose a seat, Sen. Jason Richards (Impact, District A) said.
He said he decided Infinity Hall needed its own seat after it created a constitution as a residence-hall area government.
Student Body President Joselin Padron-Rasines thanked Senate.
"I believe that Infinity Hall deserves representation in the Senate," she said.
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
