Over the past year, the Student Government Association has worked to make changes to the campus community garden. Last year, SGA moved the garden near the Rhatigan Student Center and created the Sustainability Committee. The current Student Senate has voted in new bylaws for the garden.
The community garden has student assistants, who help maintain and promote the garden as well as promote sustainability practices, according to the bylaws. Also on the student assistants’ list of primary duties is garden programming, which includes events and workshops centered around the garden and sustainability.
Student assistants are paid $12 per hour with varying hours per week depending on the time of year, according to SGA Advisor Gabriel Fonseca.
The student assistants and volunteer coordination are funded by the president’s budget, which also funds various entities on campus, including SGA agencies, staff salaries, and the appropriations budget for registered student organizations.
During the debate on the Senate Bill establishing the bylaws at the Nov. 12 meeting, the Student Senate made additions to the new laws focused on regulations regarding garden use.
The amendments include bylaws barring the growth of prohibited plants like marijuana and tobacco as well as the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco in the area.
The laws also state that individuals are not allowed to “claim exclusive ownership” of different areas of the garden. Individuals are also not allowed to remove or damage crops or support structures that they did not put in place.
Produce grown in the garden is also not allowed to be sold for profit.
Because the rules were added to the bylaws in amendments made by the Student Senate, the enforcement model for the rules still needs to be created, according to Fonseca. He said that signage should be posted and that the rules will be enforced by the student assistants, though this plan is not final.
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