The school year is nearing its end, and Florida Atlantic University’s student government (SG) budget of $9.6 million is dwindling. While the Boca campus uses the bulk of the funds, the Jupiter campus has been working to provide more initiatives for student benefits. Here are a few:

LA Fitness Partnership
Students in previous years were able to use Palm Beach Sports Club for free due to the university’s lack of recreational facilities. Campus Recreation would pay for students’ gym memberships but eventually saw that costs would be cheaper if it were to discontinue its agreement with Palm Beach Sports Club and build a small gym in one of the housing apartments.

In an email, senior cellular neuroscience major André Rajoo, said he finds the current rec center to be “nice” with “good equipment but is very small.”

On March 15, Jitesh Persaud, the Jupiter Governor, found students’ physical health was not being prioritized. This led his cabinet to sign a “slightly under $20,000” contract with LA Fitness.

As of now, Persaud says that only the first 100 students will be able to use the facilities for free.

“We typically had about 80 or 90 students using it [Palm Beach Sports Clubs] at a time so 100 actually worked well,” said Persaud. “But as our student body increases, the next administration can definitely increase [memberships] if they so choose.”

In an email according to Chief Financial Officer Pierce Kennamer, he said the deal costs “$18,000.”

Menstrual Health
Gender neutral products, like tampons and pads, are for female, male, or nonbinary students who experience periods.

Persaud also oversaw plans to place menstrual products throughout the campus. According to Persaud, the cost for the large supply of organic cotton pads and tampons ranges from “six or $7,000.”

According to Kennamer, it cost the university “$1330.”

“The most challenging part I’d say about the initiative beyond the, you know, the approval processes and all of that was establishing a system to regularly restock them,” he said. “That’s actually something that we’re still working on and I want to kind of finalize before the end of my term.”

In its preliminary stages, acrylic dispensers were placed in women’s bathrooms to see if menstrual products would be used. After a successful run, Persaud went ahead and had the acrylic dispensers switched to industrial dispensers and placed in women’s bathrooms throughout the campus.

“They [menstrual products] are only in the women’s restrooms,” said Persaud. “We don’t have gender neutral restrooms on our campus, but to make sure we have options available, we have gender neutral [menstrual product] options available.”

Free Printing Program
Current SG Treasure Kirk Meyers hopes to save students money by allowing students to print for free.

“This would allow students to print up to 10 pages per day, ideally, every day of the month and every day of the school year, they could go to the library or the Student Union, or wherever the Jupiter campus decides to put that printer,” said Meyers. “Student Government will rent printers, then they [students] could just log into their [school] account, and they’ll just be able to print freely.”

Discussions are still being held but Meyers hopes to have the program implemented by fall 2022.

“We anticipate that if we were to give this program $200 a month, we can print 20,000 pages a month, which would be very helpful for students,” Meyers said.

Night Owls
To further the safety of students, Jupiter will be introducing “Night Owls” now that it has secured funding.

“We finally were able to secure funding for a golf cart, and we’re able to pay staff members or student staff members to just be available from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.,” said Meyers. “I know this is an issue in Boca as well as it is probably every college campus, but it’s especially present in Jupiter because there’s a lot of natural areas that they don’t want to build, or installed lights here.”

Meyers called the finalization of “Night Owls” a “big breakthrough” after executing the funds and provisions for staffing and the golf cart.

“It took such a long time to do so and we were able to get a brand new golf cart, [Americans with Disabilities Act] ADA accessible and that’s if we get a great deal of activity for like a great deal of engagement from students,” he said. “It costs $15,000 because this cart is like 12 to 14 feet long, somewhere in the middle of that.”

Meyers did not give a time frame when the “Night Owls” will officially be available for students.

Kennamer said in an email that the fiscal year (2021-2022) “total expense [was] $11,986.00.”

Kizzy Azcarate is the Student Life Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, tweet her @Kizzy_kinz or [email protected]