ASSEMBLY TO CONSIDER UNION STUDENT'S PROPOSAL
Jackson, Tenn. — The Tennessee General Assembly is expected to consider a bill that was sponsored by 51ÉçÇø's Annie Laurie Crane, a sophomore communication arts major from Bartlett.
Crane and seven other students represented the University as delegates to the 30th General Assembly of the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature, a mock governmental body, in October 1996.
At the state TISL meeting, Crane proposed a piece of legislation that would amend Title 39, Chapter 17, Section 1507 of the Tennessee Code in order to eliminate access of tobacco to minors. The act would require that cigarette vending machines be used only with special tokens sold by the management of the organization in which the machine is located. Such a measure would require owners and managers to sell tokens to the machines only to individuals over the age of 18.
The piece of legislation was labeled as priority legislation and is among nine bills that will be presented for consideration to the actual Tennessee General Assembly.
This year's TISL state assembly was the first at which Union has been represented. Students who participated included Jay Bush, John Carroll, Jennifer Cates, David Harbin, Mary Ann Jones, Andrea McDaniel, Smithy Sipes and Crane.
"Union made an excellent first impression," Crane said as she explained that the University's delegation received several other honors: (1) Sipes was elected Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Senate for the 31st General Assembly, (2) McDaniel was chosen to serve on the Governor's staff, (3) the Union delegation received the award for Best New Delegation out of seven new participating schools and (4) Crane received the Douglas Carlisle Award, given to only three of more than 200 delegates in the mock House of Representatives.
President David S. Dockery told Crane that the students' "hard work has indeed earned respect, both from [their] peers in TISL and at Union University." He asked to be kept informed of the legislation progress through the actual Tennessee General Assembly.