By Caroline King
Staff Writer
Student Government introduced four bills at its fourth meeting of the semester on Wednesday, Sept. 25 in the Education Building Room 115.
The meeting began with the swearing-in of new members who hold senate positions, student council and the sole parliamentary position. Those who were sworn in won their votes during the summer and fall.
Following the swearing-in of the new members, including seven Freshman Class Council members, SG brought New Business to the floor, where new bills are discussed and scheduled to be voted on at the next meeting. The first bill introduced in New Business included B-F2019-06, Mandating Special Elections.
This bill states that in the event a cabinet position becomes vacant by resignation, impeachment or any other means, SG’s president will have the power to appoint a suitable individual to the position through an application process, with the exception of the student trustees.
The bill will be discussed further at the next SG meeting, where a possible vote will take place.
The next bill introduced in New Business was B-F2019-07, Equitable Senator Cohort Positions. If passed, the bill would allow for the restructuring of the current SG senate cohort model, and would go into effect for the upcoming spring semester.
While keeping with the same amount of total senators serving in SG, the numbers would be distributed evenly among the seven schools, with a total of seven senators representing each. As proposed in the bill, four senators for each school would be voted in for the upcoming spring semester, and the remaining for the fall 2020 semester.
The purpose of the bill would be to instill a more equitable approach to the senate, so that schools with smaller members would have just as much power as larger schools.
The following two bills introduced were reminiscent of bills that failed to pass the week prior, with additional changes made to the contents of the bill in order for them to be brought to the floor for a possible vote.
B-F2019-09, Judiciary Board and Recall Proceedings, hold an additional segment, which states that the judiciary board will be responsible for adhering to the previously set standards in the constitution regarding GPA maintenance, academic integrity and adhering to the Student Code of Conduct. The bill also says that if the executive vice president is involved in the impeachment investigation, he or she must remove themselves from the board, so as not to have a conflict of interest.
The final bill introduced was B-F2019-10, titled Membership Accountability. The bill is in conjunction with the previous bill, and was previously tabled at the meeting last week.
The bill stems from the need for members to adhere to the academic integrity policy and for the Judiciary board, in conjunction with SG advisors, to abide by the standards set in the previous bill.
As these two bills go hand-in-hand, the first would change SG’s constitution, and the second would change its bylaws.
The bills will be discussed further at the next meeting, where members will potentially vote on them.
