The Boca Raton House of Representatives unanimously passed BRHB 2023-14, a bill that provides an ADA-certified (Americans with Disabilities Act) golf cart to the Boca Raton Night Owls program on Friday, using leftover funds from the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Night Owls is a ride service that promotes student safety for those who need to travel across campus in the evening, but for years it has lacked a wheelchair-accessible golf cart.

“For quite some time now, Night Owls has picked up anywhere from 50 to 100s of people a night with room to pick up more. However unfortunately we have not been able to assist some of the ADA community, particularly the ones who need wheelchair assistance,” Night Owls Director Devin Antoine wrote in an email. 

Due to a significant budget cut, Night Owls was not able to purchase a new ADA golf cart, which costs $23,100.36. Now, with Student Government’s help, the program will be able to transport wheelchair-bound students with ease.

“I am glad to hear that we can now get this bill passed to help Night Owls which will only benefit the safety and well-being of the FAU community,” wrote Antoine.

The bill passed with a vote of 20-0, moved to adoption by Rep. Alex Mojica and seconded by Campus Based Budget Appropriations Committees Chair Vania Bocage.

This bill is not effective until the summer semester, which marks the start of the 18th legislative session.

“[Disabled students] needed a specific golf cart,” said Rep. Raymond Adderly. “This is the House saying ‘Okay, here we are; we’re here to help, we want to make this more efficient and we also want to make this more accessible.’ So this is a huge piece of legislation.”

Speaker Pro Tempore Leann Mervilus also spoke in support of this legislation, as representatives have been discussing this initiative for an extended period of time.

“We as a House need to follow through with our initiatives and this is another start to that,” Mervilus said. “So I do ask for your support so that we can prove to the rest of the campus that if we pull out a new initiative, we’re going to finish it.”

Mary Rasura is a Staff Writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or DM her on Instagram @maryrasura.

Elisabeth Gaffney is a Staff Writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or DM her on Instagram @elisabethgaff.