The Student Government Association unanimously passed a resolution supporting the distribution of emergency contraception among students on Wichita State campus.
Sexual Health Advocacy Resources and Education (SHARE), a Planned Parenthood generation action chapter at WSU, aims to increase the accessibility of emergency contraception (EC) on campus and will hand out Plan B, a form of EC, to students through SHARE’s social media account.
According to the resolution, SHARE will train volunteers to provide Plan B to students, and those requesting Plan B can use their name or be anonymous.
Sen. Victoria Owens spoke in support of the resolution.
“I think that it’s important that we have more sexual health advocacy on campus,” Owens said. “We’re a college campus. Let’s be frank, it’s happening. I think that this could do some really positive change for our community.”
SHARE President Stella Gage and At-large Sen. Jasmine Peng first discussed their idea for a “peer-to-peer” distribution of emergency contraception during the Nov. 15 Student Senate meeting.
Gage highlighted that EC on campus is in high demand among students and said SHARE receives unlimited free emergency contraceptives from Plan B distributors.
Peng primarily authored the resolution, with Gage and Subcommittee Chairperson Adrianna Owens as co-sponsors.
Other business
Student Body Vice President Sophie Martins, who is serving as acting president until Feb. 12, introduced a resolution that would allocate funds into a bond for Rhatigan Student Center remodeling purposes.
According to Martins, the original RSC Remodeling Project Debt Service of 2014 will soon expire, and passing this resolution would allow SGA to retain the amount of money taken for that bond to pay for one-time expenses in the RSC, such as updating the building’s roofing.
Martins said the student fees would not increase, and the student fees committee would decide how that funding for the RSC is spent as well as go through an approval process.
“I also am wholeheartedly in the belief that this is our building, and we really need to be the ones to help pay for it and fix it so it doesn’t stay the same,” Martins said.
