Hey Gators!
My name is Ben Lima, and I’m the new Inspire Party Leader in your UF Student Government Senate. The Senate has just started a new term, so I thought I would reach out to introduce myself and the Inspire Caucus’ priorities following the recent election.
Students pay $19.06 per credit hour to Student Government per semester. For many students, that means they pay over $500 to SG every year. This money has incredible potential to help improve your everyday life on campus, and we want to ensure that your student fees are spent responsibly, on things that actually matter, in a way that makes a real difference.
This term, the Inspire Caucus will focus on furthering our commitment to inclusivity, transparency, and the accountability of those in SG. Every Gator deserves to have a say in how their representatives act and to know how their money is being spent.
A few of our priorities this term are to empower survivors of sexual assault by centralizing reporting resources to one location, expand the Uber Safe Rides program in ZIP codes 32607 and 32608, improve accessibility to the Counseling & Wellness Center and Disability Resource Center, reduce graduate assistant student fees, ensure student organizations have access to an equitable funding process and much more.
Senate meets every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Reitz ground floor chamber. All of our meetings are open to the public and you can even view live streams of them on Senator Zachariah Chou’s Facebook page at facebook.com/zachariah.chou!
There are opportunities to make your voice heard outside of the election season as well. If you would like to address the Senate directly, you are welcome to sign up to speak in a public debate at a Senate meeting by emailing senatepresident@sg.ufl.edu and senatesecretary@sg.ufl.edu before the meeting begins.
Have questions, feedback or suggestions? Email me at blima@ufl.edu, and I’d be pleased to talk with you about how we can make UF a brighter place for all of us.
Ben Lima is the Inspire Party Leader in the UF Student Government Senate.
Students pay $19.06 per credit hour to Student Government per semester. For many students, that means they pay over $500 to SG every year. For instance, a student taking 15 credits over the course of a fall and spring semester would then pay $571.80 to SG for that time period.
To clarify, the $571.80 would be if they took 15 credits in Fall and 15 credits in Spring.
The $19.06 is the Activity and Service Fee, which is one of the fees that UF students pay as part of Tuition & Fees every semester. This money goes directly to Student Government.
