On Tuesday, Oct. 13 the Student Government Association (SGA) convened for its eighth general body meeting of the semester. The meeting began with the Senate’s confirmation of two new justices to SGA’s judiciary, junior Jonathan Aguilar and senior Jacqueline Kim. After the new justices were confirmed, the meeting’s agenda was approved. During the designated time for public input, a representative from the CARE Club made an announcement about a Halloween event that CARE and SGA would be collaborating on.
The meeting then moved into reports from the executive branch of SGA, as well as a report from the SGA Advisor about a planned social event for SGA senators. Then the meeting allowed for individual reports from senators, during which Senator Paul Woo gave a report on potentially replacing two-factor authentication with passkeys on University Wi-Fi, as well as the possibility of establishing a community garden on the Homewood campus.
President of the Senate Jazzlyn Fernandez then announced that SGA members in attendance would be nominating a Senator of the Month for September. Student Athlete Caucus Chair Sophia Baleeiro was chosen for the title.
Senator Peter Tarpley then gave a presentation about the state of SGA’s budget, in which he shared that SGA is slightly overspending and advised a weekly spending budget of $4,500.
The meeting then entered legislative procedures. Vice President of the Senate Shreeman Patel introduced a bill for first reading about the establishment of a caucus for transfer students, which was referred to the Internal Affairs Committee. Senator Paul Woo then introduced a bill aiming to amend the bylaws to explicitly appoint a member of SGA to the University’s Cross-Institutional Student Advisory Committee (CSAC,) an advisory board made of students from all of the University’s campuses. The bill was also referred to the Internal Affairs Committee after a moderated caucus, in which SGA members mentioned that Sophomore Class President Veda Kommineni already serves as SGA’s appointee to the CSAC. Senator Sophia Baleeiro also introduced a bill to fund T-shirts for the Student Athlete Advisory Council, which was referred to the Finance Committee.
Sophomore Class President Veda Kommineni then discussed her bill, which was in its second reading. The bill focused on a tabling event for SGA, in which students will be able to give feedback to SGA. The committee then motioned for a moderated caucus to discuss whether an online survey or index cards were the best method to gather feedback. After Kommineni’s bill was passed, the meeting moved into cohort time and then adjourned.
