A proposed UH Good Samaritan Bill failed to find support in the Student Government Association Senate on Wednesday night following heated debate.
The bill’s author, Senator-at-Large Michael Blunk, withdrew it from the Senate following divisive discussion of whether it would create long-term problems if put into effect.
"I’m pulling it because I’m inviting (Associate Dean of Students) Kamran Riaz and because I understand how concerned everyone is," Blunk said.
The bill would allow a person or persons involved in a life-or-death situation with drugs or alcohol to sidestep punitive University discipline from the Dean of Students Office when calling for emergency medical care. It would also require those students to enroll in drug-awareness programs, after which sanctions would be removed from their records.
Blunk said the bill was intended to reduce the risk that comes with alcohol and drug abuse, and that the University already applies these actions as an unwritten law in most circumstances.
Nearly half of the Senate opposed the bill.
Law Sen. Norman Nelson said the implementation of the bill might promote drug and alcohol use among students.
"It would lead the school down a slippery slope and provide a free pass to abuse drugs and alcohol on campus," Nelson said.
If the SGA Senate had passed the legislation, UH would have joined more than 90 institutes of higher education in the nation in passing similar policies.
The Senate also approved a bill repealing a 2007 bill that called for a 100 percent fair-trade certified coffee kiosk in the 24-hour lounge of the M.D. Anderson Library. The bill stated the SGA Senate did not fully research the bill at the time it was passed by the previous SGA administration on April 4, 2007.
Business Sen. Salman Amanullah, author of the bill, said the purpose of the legislation was to address and correct a mistake made by the Senate.
"We do not do our homework. We do not do our research," said Amanullah, who began researching the bill after it was passed in April 2007. "Nobody even asked the library if they wanted a coffee vendor."
Section 5 of the bill stated the SGA would take the proper measures to ensure that future legislation is adequately researched to "prevent such contradictions from happening again."
"The bill is not about oppression. It’s about an error. Every time the bill is brought up, we are confronted with our error," Amanullah said.
Students for Fair Trade President Tiffany Le said the repeal of the fair-trade bill would further the detrimental effects of globalization.
"(Students) can help out by just buying a cup of coffee," Le said. "This repeal shows a complete lack of respect toward our bill from the University."
Speaker Pro Tem Kelly Evans said the bill would instead enable the SGA to adequately pursue the promotion of fair-trade coffee on campus.
"This is by no means the end of the fair-trade debate. This isn’t shutting any doors," Evans said.
The legislation also stipulates that SGA continue to support UH’s effort to educate consumers by providing fair-trade coffee literature at coffee vendors on campus.
The Senate also passed a bill to clarify and expedite the legislative process, a resolution in support of the Sustainability Task Force and a bill to establish a clerk of the Senate who will serve as an unofficial member to take meeting minutes.
Additional reporting by Ruth Rodriguez
