The Student Association assembly voted Monday night to approve sending a letter to the New York State Assembly arguing for the legalization of ride-hailing services, such as Uber, in the state.

The assembly also discussed the Working Group on Free Speech’s recommendations to Chancellor Kent Syverud on how to improve free speech and free speech policies at SU.

After discussing the “Uber letter” for a few minutes, the assembly voted unanimously to approve it.

SA President Aysha Seedat and Parliamentarian James Franco wrote the letter with the help of student governments at other schools in New York state. Seedat and Franco began drafting the letter in September, and the assembly took an official stance supporting the legalization of Uber at its Nov. 2 meeting.

However, the assembly delayed voting on the letter until Seedat and Franco could finalize it. They made minor edits to the letter in recent weeks, but the general ideas of the letter remained the same, Franco said.

The letter points to student safety and job creation as the primary benefits of legalizing ride-hailing services.

Seedat said she will send the letter to the state assembly before the end of the semester. The New York State Assembly will convene for its next legislative session in January, when it will consider bill A.6090, which would change state law to include ride-hailing services in its insurance regulations. That would allow the services to operate throughout the state. Currently, ride-hailing services are illegal in the state, except for in New York City.

Earlier in the meeting, Speaker of the Assembly Janine Bogris went over the Working Group on Free Speech’s report to Syverud. Syverud created the workgroup in February in response to resolutions passed last fall by SA, the Graduate Student Organization and the Student Bar Association. The resolutions expressed concerns that SU’s Computing and Electronic Policy limited free speech at the university.

Syverud originally created the working group to review that specific policy, but its members — Bogris, David Rubin, Crystal Bartolovich, Amy Burnette, James Duah-Aygeman and Zachary Greenberg — opted instead to provide recommendations for free speech of all forms.

The report recommends that SU create a centralized free speech policy and offer recommendations on what should and shouldn’t constitute as free speech.

The working group submitted its report to Syverud in September, and the SA assembly got its first glimpse of the 12-page report Monday, when assembly members spent more than 45 minutes reviewing the report in its entirety.
SA, GSO and the Student Bar Association will have an opportunity to review the report and take their own stances by a deadline of April 16, Seedat said.

Published on November 16, 2015 at 9:45 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu