Student Government President Emily Yu’s recent veto on a Senate bill to create an adopt-a-tree program on campus will not kill the idea for good, SG Senator-At-Large Joe Wisiniewski said.
SG discussed necessary reforms to the bill to make the program more sustainable during a Senate meeting on Sept. 23.
“Just because it was vetoed does not mean it ceases to exist,” Wisniewski said. “It will be done and it will be much better than originally planned.”
Yu vetoed the bill because she wanted to keep the Community Service Coalition as more of a delegating organization as opposed to being more hands-on, Wisniewski said.
The adopt-a-tree program is run through the District Department of Transportation’s Department of Urban Forestry Administration. The Department provides the program for D.C. residents. Those who adopt will water and care for the tree for two years.
The program would be great for the environment, give the Community Service Coalition a consistent project to work on and would be a great PR opportunity for the University, Wisniewski said.
Under the original bill, Wisniewski said he saw the adopt-a-tree program as the Community Service Coalition’s first step to housing more on-campus service projects.
The organization’s traditional role is to plan community service projects across the D.C. area, according to the organization’s website.
The Senate passed this bill unanimously on Sept. 6. However, Senate members said they were most concerned with the challenge of holding onto volunteers and the vagueness of the bill.
The original bill called for the use of AUTO vans and bikes to help transport water to the trees.
However, Comptroller Joe Ste.Marie said on Sept. 6 that other student groups may not be able to use the vans when needed because of this program.
“The cost I’m most worried about is organizations that aren’t able to use AUTO vans,” he said.
Upon hearing that the bill was vetoed, Wisniewski said he began working with Facilities Management to reform the bill so that it would replicate the community garden program. Two paid directors currently run this program so it does not depend solely on student involvement.
“The problem was they had plenty of volunteers for the first semester, and then after that everyone stopped coming and it died,” Wisniewski said. “So they paid two directors, they got faculty and staff involved, and the program’s doing great to this day.”
SG is working with the Office of Sustainability to get the “adopt-a-tree” program up and running, Wisniewski said. In the next couple of years when the program is more fiscally stable, SG will present the program to Facilities Management who then take it over in the long term.
But some members of the Senate still are not convinced of the program’s viability.
“I’m not too enthusiastic about the “adopt-a-tree” program,” Sen. Kevin Levy, representing the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “Philosophically, I think it’s irresponsible for us to pass a bill by unanimous consent two weeks ago especially after a lot of debate. And two weeks later it gets vetoed, and we’re all OK with it.”
Staff Writer Maddi Pariser contributed to this report.
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