This year, two petitions have been filed with EMU, one aiming to remove the requirement for juniors to have a 60-block meal plan, and the other to promote greater environmental sustainability at EMU. 

Noah Buckwalter, the author of the 60-block meal plan petition, explained that “the motivation for [the petition] was that if you’re a junior and you’re on the 60 block meal plan, you’re paying about $15 per meal, while it costs any visitor to EMU who goes to the cafeteria about 7 or 8 bucks.” Buckwalter submitted the petition, with around 200 signatures, through SGA in October 2025. Since then, Buckwalter expressed that he and SGA with the help of Jonathan Swartz have been working with the administration on fulfilling these goals.

Both the Students Engaging in Environmental Development and Stewardship (SEEDS) club and Peace Fellowship were involved in creating the other petition. According to senior Sara Kennel, who is on the leadership for SEEDS and was involved in the creation process, “the goal of the petition was to have a more sustainable way for students and the university to be achieving their own sustainability goals and maintaining what’s been done here in the past.” Kennel also mentioned that the petition seeks to create a role where someone could work on sustainability initiatives over a longer period of time, since “it was feeling really fragmented that student leaders would come in and initiate… various projects around campus, and would have leadership support, but then initiatives would just fall off, or it was just really hard for them to have a long-term impact.” However, filling a position like that needs the input of a large amount of resources, something that Kennel said didn’t seem to be the priority of administration at this moment, with limited funding that is needed for other efforts around campus. 

For Leah Frankenfield, student body co-president, “A lot of people at EMU hold a lot of different roles and responsibilities, and it’s just really hard to figure out who can be responsible for this without taxing them, but it’s such an important need for students.” 

According to Kennel, one possibility is the creation of “an internship or an AmeriCorps position that EMU offers to either a university student or someone that was a recent grad … that wouldn’t be paid very much or would be paid through a third body, but at least would be a position that would hopefully be continually filled in the summers as well, and could facilitate more on campus.” However, Kennel also expressed that there is a lot more that can be done and discussed with administration, as well as SGA. 

(The reporter is a part of leadership for SEEDS)