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The Indiana Daily Student

IUSA calls for free sexual assault counseling

Sexual assault counseling will be free beyond the first two sessions if Counseling and Psychological Services adheres to IU Student Association’s new ?resolution.

The IUSA Congress passed three resolutions at an assembly meeting ?Tuesday.

Representatives passed a resolution urging IU CAPS to provide students who have been designated victims of sexual assault with free individual counseling sessions until a licensed mental health care professional deems the sessions no longer necessary.

Currently, individual counseling sessions cost up to $20.

“Basically, this policy is seeking to right a wrong that I think is a serious wrong,” IUSA representative and Indiana Daily Student columnist Andrew Guenther said. “It’s seeking to change a policy that requires students that have been victims of sexual assault to pay a fee to receive mental health care that could have saved their life.”

Though CAPS currently offers those who have paid an IU Health fee two free sessions per semester, Guenther said two free sessions is not sufficient in treating mental health disorders triggered by sexual assault.

In a unanimous vote, representatives also passed a resolution urging IU-Bloomington to pursue energy efficiency, emissions reductions and renewable energy sources and ?infrastructure.

The Bicentennial Strategic Plan, approved in December, calls for IU to achieve the energy efficiency and emissions reductions goals outlined in both the Campus Master Plan and the Integrated Energy Master Plan.

The Campus Master Plan calls for IU-Bloomington to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, while the Integrated Energy Master Plan calls for IU-Bloomington to reduce annual energy consumption costs by $3 ?million.

Both plans call for accountability and transparency in regard to monitoring and reporting progress toward achieving the energy efficiency and emissions reductions goals outlined in both the Campus Master Plan and the Integrated ?Energy Master Plan.

“We’re asking IU to do things it’s essentially already agreed to do,” Scott Zellner, IUSA ?representative, said.

The resolution also urges IU-Bloomington to publish an annual report about progress toward achieving the energy efficiency and emissions reductions goals outlined in both the Campus Master Plan and the Integrated Energy Master Plan, as well as progress toward introducing renewable energy sources and infrastructure.

The resolution further urges IU-Bloomington to invest a specified and significant level of funds toward renewable energy sources and infrastructure.

In a unanimous vote, representatives also passed a resolution urging IU to specify the major on bachelor of arts degrees under the College of Arts and ?Sciences.

Under current practices, bachelor of arts degrees do not specify the major, though bachelor of science degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences do, as do degrees from other IU schools.

“It’s not a Big Ten thing,” Guenther said. “It’s not an IU thing. It’s just something IU has never done.”

The resolution states that IUSA will work with the Office of the Recorder and with Student Central on Union to explore and implement a policy specifying the major on bachelor of arts degrees, preferably before the graduation of Spring 2015.

“I think that the fact that they don’t even have their majors on there is just a slap in the face,” Joseph Zarka, IUSA representative said. “Everybody’s paying tuition, everybody’s paying the dues to get their diploma from this school and to not have their major on there just seems wrong.”

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