SGA members confer on internal accountability measures

The Student Government Association (SGA) met on Jan. 25 for its weekly meeting to discuss an amendment to SGA rules surrounding member discipline, a bill to form a Disability Caucus and confirmations.

Rules Bill amendment

SGA discussed an amendment to impose more disciplinary measures for its members as a measure to improve accountability.

• Members can report on their colleagues who fail to uphold their duties or adhere to the bylaws of the association. These infractions can range from not completing action items from a meeting to deliberate misuse of SGA resources.
• These infractions will garner the perpetrating member disciplinary marks; senators with 10 disciplinary marks in a semester will be subject to an impeachment vote. Committee chairs, senators on more than two committees and class presidents can have a buffer of five additional marks per additional committee before being subject an impeachment vote. 
• Each week, members must fill out a worklog listing what they have worked on that week. Failure to do so for one month will result in a disciplinary mark.
• Sophomore Class Senator Harvey McGuinness expressed concern about the wording of the bill, remarking that it “assumes guilt, not innocence. I think that there should be an option, not the immediate assumption of one or the other.” He suggested the wording be adjusted to say that disciplinary measures may be imposed, depending on investigation.
• The amendment was unanimously approved.

Disability Caucus 

Executive Secretary Elaina Regier presented a bill to create a Disability Caucus as well as reasons for its creation. 

• Regier mentioned that students with disabilities have reported issues with accessibility and inclusion on campus. 
• To help resolve this, she suggested the creation of a Disability Caucus to centralize all the discussions with University administration regarding accessibility and inclusivity for disabled students as well as make it easier for students with disabilities to access the resources they need.
• The bill was unanimously approved.

Confirmations 

SGA unanimously confirmed several new members to fill in vacancies.

• Then-senator Talia Shadroui was confirmed as the junior class president. 
• Sophomore Class President Kobi Khong was confirmed as a co-chair of the Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American (APIDA) Caucus.
• Junior Class Senator Sophie Liu was confirmed as a co-chair of the APIDA Caucus.