SGA passes Programming Bylaws Update Bill

The Student Government Association (SGA) held its weekly general body meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 19 to swear in and acclimate the new freshmen senators for their posts. SGA also voted on the Chair of Programming Bylaws Update Bill and the Sophomore Class Council Tabling Funding Bill.

Freshman senator confirmations

Newly elected freshmen senators were sworn in and officially confirmed by the assembly. 

• Vishnu Dontu was sworn in as Freshman Class President in addition to Omotara Tiamiyu, Arihant Singh, Jaden Williams and Tarini Basireddy, who were sworn in as Freshman Class Senators.
• Freshmen senators are expected to join their committees over the next week.

The Student Perspective Interview Initiative Funding Bill

Senior Class Senator Christian Bakhit presided over the Student Perspective Interview Initiative Bill, which aimed to ameliorate a deep-rooted concern that there needed to be more communication between the SGA and the student body. Bakhit shared concerns that “a lot of senators do not attend many tabling meetings.”

• Bakhit’s proposal would create a process where 10 students from the student body would be interviewed every semester and asked a series of questions put forward by SGA members. The interviews would be recorded for all SGA members to watch.
• Bakhit said this would establish a “new tradition” of connecting the SGA to the students: bringing the student body to the SGA instead of the current model of the SGA reaching out to the student body. 
• The bill was sent to the Committee on Finance.

Chair of Programming Bylaws Update Bill

Chair of Programming Shalala Leny presented the bill, which formally amends the bylaws to establish and define the role of the Student Body Chair of Programming position and transfer the organizational responsibilities for tabling events and other meet-and-greets from the Student Body President to the Chair of Programming.

• The bill clarified how the Chair of Programming is expected to collaborate with other committee chairs and ranking members of the SGA on a number of tasks. 
• Attendance at student outreach events would be mandatory for all newly elected members.
• In the interests of expediency, President of the Senate Dalhart Dobbs decided to waive the requirement for both of the following bills to be passed through their respective committees.
• The bill passed unanimously.

Sophomore Class Council Tabling Funding Bill

Sophomore Class President Stone Meng revisited the Sophomore Class Tabling Funding Bill, which was first introduced to the assembly one week prior. 

• The bill raised the sum of $64 to provide four boxes of 12 Insomnia Cookies for an upcoming student tabling event to take place at the Breezeway around the end of September. Continuing with the running theme of promoting SGA and student-body interaction, funding for cookies was sought in order to “provide enough incentive” for students to attend the tabling event. 
• The bill passed unanimously.