STORY BY CORIE LYNN
The main focus of this week’s Student Senate meeting was to pass the bill for the revised SGA constitution and bylaws.
During the executive reports, Vice President Kirschbaum stated that she spent the week in bylaw and funding reviews.
She also announced to the Senate that the newly-elected senators of next year’s administration were present that evening in order to learn how SGA meetings are conducted.
Lastly, Kirschbaum mentioned that she met with the final Provost candidate, but the candidate has since dropped out of the race for the position.
Treasurer Voss reported that his week was spent answering questions about appropriations and preparing for the second Higher Ed Day, which several senators had attended earlier in the day.
Legislative Affairs Director Mountford further discussed Higher Ed Day in Topeka during his report. According to him, the senators went into the day expecting to start a discussion on why a certain amount of funding was needed for higher education. The senators were then thankful to find out that they were being funding the full amount they requested.
Few committees met during the week, but several, including the Appropriations and Senate Affairs Committees, have bills that will be read at upcoming meetings.
In the OER Committee report, Chair Brad DeMers stated that he and Vice President Kirschbaum hosted a Times Talk at Forsyth Library over OER’s. The purpose of this talk was to inform students and faculty about OER implementation at FHSU and answer questions.
During the Open Forum, Senator Franek mentioned a concern brought to her by one of her constituents.
According to Franek, McMindes Residential Hall has consistent problems with washer breaking. Only two to three are ever working at a time and have to be shared between the 500 students living in the hall. This has been an issue in the hall throughout the entire semester.
Dr. Linn, a faculty advisor to the SGA, said that he would look into the situation.
Following the reading of one new bill and one new resolution, the senators began the discussion of six bills presented for their second reading.
They passed four bills: one for Alpha Gamma Delta’s trip to Indianapolis, one for a geography conference in Washington, D.C, one for the International Business Club to travel to Europe, and one for a Greece/Italy study abroad trip through the Communications Department.
The fifth bill read during this time was for the adoption of the revised SGA Constitution and Bylaws. These documents were heavily discussed by the senators and several portions of each document were amended.
Amendments within the Bylaws included changes in wording and how exemptions are handled by the senators. They also raised the senatorial GPA requirements stated in the document by .25 to ensure that SGA members put their education first.
Constitutional amendments included one that stated that the student body has the power to revoke the SGA Constitution as long as they follow their powers outlined in the Constitution.
There was also a proposed amendment that would prevent the SGA President, Vice President, Treasurer, and LAD from holding executive positions in other student organizations to prevent a conflict of interest. This was later revoked when the senators came to the agreement that it would not be fair to newly elected staff members who were unaware of the amendment.
Following these changes to the document, the adoption bill was passed.
Before the close of the meeting, the SGA voted to postpone the final bill that was to be read until the meeting the following week.
The Student Senate will reconvene at 7:00 in the evening on May 9.