UF student senators are divided on whether students living in Infinity Hall should have their own senator or be part of District A.
Senators in Student Government have been debating the residence-hall representation, which is based on ZIP codes. The dispute stems from the physical building’s location in the 32601 ZIP code area, which would make it fall under District A; however, its mailing address has the ZIP code 32612. The building is also operated, but not owned, by UF.
Sen. Michael Christ (Access, graduate) said Infinity Hall should have its own senator. Infinity has an area government and, because of that, should have representation in Senate.
"Every student should have someone fighting for them in Student Senate," he said.
Marti Stein, an Infinity Hall resident, said she would want to be represented as part of District A. Everyone else on campus has one person representing their general areas, the 18-year-old UF nutritional sciences freshman said. She said she wouldn’t oppose having someone from Infinity as a District A senator.
"We’d be treated just like another dorm," she said.
Sen. Charlie Brown Jr. (Swamp, agriculture) supports having Infinity represented as part of District A. By having the residence hall in the district, multiple Infinity students could run for one of District A’s 10 seats.
"They will be able to have more than one person from Infinity," he said. Kevin Bayas, an Infinity Hall resident, said Infinity is different from surrounding apartments that might house older students.
"There are a lot of freshmen," the 18-year-old UF exploratory freshman said.
He said his residence hall should have its own senator.
"It’s like having a senator for Florida who’s not from Florida," he said.
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
