SGA confirms Chair and Vice Chair of disability caucus, discusses internal finances

The Student Government Association (SGA) met on Feb. 8 for its weekly meeting to discuss reports on recent events, finance and confirmations.

Finance Briefing and Discussion

Junior Class Senator Obi Onyinanya presented an overview of SGA’s spending and budget for the spring semester.

• Onyinanya explained that the Finance Committee has finalized budgets for 115 SGA-funded groups.
• During the fall semester, SGA spent $8,618.88 on SGA bills and has $13,391.12 remaining to spend on SGA initiatives.
• SGA also spent $102,347.58 of its Dean of Student Life (DOSL) funding on registered student organizations (RSOs). Onyinanya added that “a lot has been recalled, and we’re still uncertain of what number that was.” SGA has $127,652.42 remaining for RSOs this spring.
• Five student groups—HopMUN, Debate, Mock Trial, Minecraft Club and HopThon—will now be funded under SGA. 
• SGA has plans to create finance tutorial videos and hold help sessions. Onyinanya explained that “we realize how hard it is for student org[anization]s to submit purchase requests as well as submit funding [requests] into the CampusGroups system.”

Jay Games Event Report

Freshman Class President Ryan Chou gave a report on the Jay Games event organized for freshmen and held on Dec. 10 last year.

• Chou summarized that “Jay Games was a three-hour reproduction of the show Squid Game. We took 100 first-year students and made them play six games.” The games included red light/green light and tug of war, and the final game was musical chairs.
• $1793.33 was spent mainly on prizes but also on other miscellaneous items and onsite resources.
• Chou considers the event to be a success, noting that “we had approximately 90 live players, 50 live spectators and countless people following our livestream.”
• Freshman Class Senator Jackson Morris took away from the event that “the strongest way to do something that can integrate your class is to have people from your class actually work on the project.”

SGA Tabling Funding Bill

Freshman Class Senator Dalhart Dobbs III presented a bill entailing funding details for SGA’s tabling event that will be held on Feb. 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• The purpose of the event is to increase SGA’s visibility and inform students about what SGA does.
• Blue Jay plushies, candy and tumblers will be given away. The total cost is expected to be $649.99 for these items.
• The bill passed unanimously.

Disability Caucus Chair and Vice Chair Confirmations

SGA confirmed Sophomore Class Senator Harvey McGuinness as the chair of the Disability Caucus and Executive Secretary Elaina Regier as the vice chair.

• McGuinness believes he’d make a good chair because he’s “been doing a lot of disability advocacy work,” his first experience having been as a volunteer with the Epilepsy Foundation when he was 14.
• Regier believes  she’s fit for the position of vice chair because she believes that “the responsibilities of vice chair follow closely with the responsibilities of executive secretary.”
• The decisions to confirm McGuinness and Regier were unanimous.

Disability Caucus Rules Bill

McGuinness presented on the Disability Caucus Rules Bill. The bill details the operations of the caucus.

• McGuinness explained that “everything in the rules bill was already introduced in the original founding of the caucus.”
• The bill passed unanimously.

Student Services Committee Chair Confirmation

Sophomore Class Senator Jenny Chen was confirmed as the Student Services Committee Chair.

• The decision to confirm Chen was unanimous.