Refreshed from the break, Iowa State Student Government dove into their new set of projects at the Memorial Union on Wednesday night.

One of the first votes for 2021 was to see which senator would become the next chair for the Student Initiatives Committee. With a unanimous vote, Senior College of Engineering Sen. Advait grasped the spot. 

According to the Student Initiatives Committee page, the committee, “highlights resources for students and leads projects that enhance the Iowa State Experience.”

In his speech, Advait updated the Senate on what the committee was all about. 

“We are a collection of senators as well as at larges from across campus,” Advait said. “I’d say the most important thing we do is reach out to individuals in the campus administrations or to maintain those contacts, so we can get student voices to them.”

Though the bill was not spoken of extensively and will be voted on at a later time, the Senate did skim over the potential of bringing e-scooters to campus. As the list of populated towns and cities around the country that have introduced the scooters have grown, the Senate is potentially looking at adding Ames to the list. 

“Kind of looking around, a lot of other universities have this service, and so this resolution is about asking the administration and advocating to them and the city to work to find a company to come into town and provide this service to students,” Jacob Ludwig, speaker of the Senate, said. 

Just before the final drop of the gavel and the end of their first meeting of 2021, Vice President Jacob Schrader spoke on the First Amendment and how he is looking toward the Iowa State Student Government to set an example as a place that is safe for free speech. 

Schrader described a conversation he had with a University of Iowa student, where due to the student speaking his political beliefs, the university threatened expulsion. It was not until members of the state legislation entered the situation where the meeting was canceled. 

Schrader wanted this story to show how delicate speech is. 

“We are a part of the university, we do have the capability to mess something up pretty bad — and that ‘something’ is someone’s First Amendment rights,” Schrader said. “Left or right or center or wherever else you end up, but when students’ rights are violated, it is not a good thing. It impacts them greatly and frankly too often students are too scared to say anything when it happens and it just continues to happen.”

With speech being a polarizing topic these days, Schrader wanted to make sure no student felt like their voice was being suppressed.

“I think this needs to be a place where the First Amendment is respected, where it is honored,” Schrader said. “Please make sure that we are respecting the students’ rights on campus. It’s what makes going to a public university so great because you have those protections, which students at private universities don’t have.”