SGA Update

The Student Government Association held its latest weekly meetings on Sunday, Sept. 28 and Oct. 5 in the Crest Room of the McCullough Student Center.

The meeting on Sept. 28 opened with an introduction of the new Director of Publicity Committee, Robin Loewald ’16. Confirmed the week prior, Loewald’s tasks in her new post include raising awareness about SGA, promoting SGA sponsored programs such as Middcourses and publicizing SGA events.

Next, the Student Liaison to the SGA on Endowment Affairs, Ian Rhee ’15, gave a presentation and asked for suggestions on getting student input on the endowment. SGA President Taylor Custer ’15 and Speaker of the Senate Michael Brady ’17.5 reminded senators to listen to constituents, then act as middlemen to bring those suggestions to Rhee.

Next, three Student Council Committees were ratified. The SGA voted on ratifying the Environmental Affairs Committee, the Athletic Affairs Committee and the Constitutional Committee. A motion was made, and passed 13-4-0, to ratify all three committees together. The SGA ratified everyone on all three committees by a vote of 11-4-2.

Most significantly, a new bill was passed at the meeting that requires all senators to have at least one scheduled office hour a week. The Office Hours Bill was proposed by President Custer and aims to bridge the disconnect between the SGA and the student body at large. While there was support for the bill by many senators, it was met with significant resistance.

Community Council Co-Chair, Ben Bogin ’15 worried that few students will show up to the office hours and Ross Senator Zak Fisher ’16 contested that this would be mandating just another thing senators are required to do. Bogin proposed an amendment to the bill, “If no student shows up at designated office hours for two consecutive weeks, senators, president and SCOCC have the discretion of canceling those hours for the remainder of the academic semester.” The motion was not seconded.

Custer asserted that “even if nobody comes to these office hours for the entire year, the fact of having them is a good symbol for the student body that the SGA is actually concerned with their opinion and wants to hear what they have to say.”

A motion to vote was made and the bill narrowly passed as originally drafted with a 9-7-1 vote.

The meeting ended with a short discussion about We the Middkids protocol. In the past, it was standard that with 100 votes, a petition was brought up at SGA meetings for discussion and with 300 votes, the president issued a response.

Chief of Staff Danny Zhang ’15 suggested changing the method of voting so each student could give single petitions only one vote instead of the current option of giving petitions one, two or three votes. He also proposed giving biweekly updates to the Senate on We the Middkids petitions. There was a strong consensus that these suggestions were all valid and should be put into place in the coming year.

At the Oct. 5 meeting, no bills were passed but a variety of issues were discussed that will likely be revisited in the future. Some of these included a change in the bylaws of how the Student Liaison to the SGA on Endowment Affairs is selected, the implementation of LaundryView on campus, and the relationship between financial aid and external scholarships.