The Undergraduate Student Government began its Sunday meeting with a special election. USG President Greg Scharine said Chris Daniels resigned from the vice president of administrative affairs executive board position.

“Due to the nature of the e-board position, we selectively pulled certain people for this position. We only have one candidate running, Ben Schmitz,” Scharine said.

The council voted Schmitz in the position. This opened up Schmitz’s former position as vice president of public relations for an election that will take place within the next few weeks.

Vice President Mike Orth then talked about the Michael Larson Memorial Foundation’s fire expo that will take place this Tuesday during convocation hour.

“His parents donated money to St. Thomas to help raise awareness about fire safety and smoking cessation, so this is an event that is going to be a huge deal,” Orth said. “Father Dease will speak at it, we’re going to have fire trucks, we’re going to have burn units, we’re going to do a mock kitchen burning and it’s going to be all on Monahan Plaza. It’s going to be a fun event.”

Orth also mentioned that the Students for Justice and Peace club is working on forming an initiative called “Water bottle-free UST” and providing 500 reusable water bottles to students.

“What they want to do is put water fueling stations around campus where you can go and refill a water bottle and just kind of decrease plastic use,” Orth said. “We think it’s a great idea, and we’d also like to pass some sort of resolution here at USG supporting the initiative.”

He said the club is applying for the new $50,000 sustainability grant for the fueling stations.

Scharine then brought up the idea to change the dress code for the Sunday meetings to business casual.

“A lot of other student governments have said that it worked really well, and it got better discussion to wear business casual to the meeting and we would like to implement that,” Scharine said.

After some discussion, Scharine decided the council will dress business casual for the next four meetings.

“If it seems to catch on and everyone enjoys it and it kind of becomes second nature, we’ll keep it. If it becomes kind of a hassle for those that have intramurals and things on Sundays, we’re always open to change,” Scharine said.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Jessica Root said the Party in the Library this Tuesday might not feature the traditional cookies.

“I switched it up a little bit. I ordered muffins and fruit,” Root said. “It kind of goes along with our nutrition (initiative) on campus.”

Cynthia Johnson can be reached at john3175@stthomas.edu.