SGA Update: ‘We the Middkids’ Petitions Sent to SGA

The Student Government Association (SGA) held meetings on Sunday, April 21 and on Sunday, April 28.

Reminder to Vote 

SGA Elections for the 2013-2014 academic year end 12:00 pm on Thursday, May 2. If you are reading this article before that time and have not voted, you are still able to vote. Voting is online and can be accessed at the link go/vote. If you are a graduating senior you are eligible to vote for next year’s president.

Finance Comittee Transparency

On April 21, The SGA unanimously passed a bylaw amendment that will create more transparency between the Finance Committee and the Senate. President Charlie Arnowitz’13 was particularly pleased with the agreement.

“The bylaw amendment will play a positive role in increasing communication within the SGA, between the Finance Committee and the Senate,” said Arnowitz. “I’m glad we all worked together to come up with a compromise that made sense for all parties.”

 Budget Meeting

On April 28, the SGA held its annual finance meeting. Finance Committee Chair Peter Mattson ’14 presented the 2013-2014 budget at the meeting. The biggest challenge for the committee was to have a balanced budget despite having a fairly small total of reserves remaining from the previous year. The committee had $1,110,625 to work with for the 2013-2014 academic year. This total was a result of parking fees, each student paying a $395 student activity fee and reserves from past years.

The budget for all organizations that receive money from the Finance Committee came out to be $933,829.09. The administration provided financial assistance to help balance the budget, and will now be footing the bill for midnight breakfasts and extended library hours during exam weeks. Mattson stated that all decisions relating to the amount of money organizations received was a result of “hard metrics and quantitative assessment.”

The budget was deemed acceptable by the SGA, and passed with a unanimous vote.

“I’m very pleased with the SGA’s budget for next year,” said Arnowitz. “Despite the financial constraints of Middview, the Finance Committee did a fantastic job and managed to produce a balanced budget for the first time in many years. The budget balances a high level of student organization programming with responsible fiscal planning, and sets us on a sustainable course for the coming years. I’m very proud of this achievement, and working with Peter on budgetary matters this year has been a pleasure.”

Feb Study Abroad Reform

Senator Evan Allis’15.5 announced legislation to make it easier for Febs to study abroad. Allis hopes to make the process fairer and easier for Febs.

“As it stands, Febs choosing to study abroad must declare a major in order to do so after only two semesters on campus. Everyone else gets a year and half,” said Allis, “It seems like there’s broad consensus that this inconsistency in policy is unfair, and I have had enough Febs tell me they chose a major prematurely as a result of the current system to know that something has to change.”

Allis plans to work with the study abroad department to find a solution to this problem, and expects to have a bill ready for the senate by Sunday.

We The Midd Kids Submissions

Two “We The Midd Kids” submissions reached the necessary vote threshold of 100 to be announced to the SGA. Kit Tse ’16 submitted a petition asking for gym hours to be extended until midnight, so as to give busy students more flexibility to work out. This submission had received 106 votes as of this past Sunday and 114 by Tuesday.

Kathryn Benson’13 proposed that printing money that is not used by the end of the school year be used to plant trees. This petition has received the most votes so far of any petition with 149 as of Tuesday.