Meeting Highlights: SGA, Sept. 26


(Source: Student Government Association at UT-Tyler's Facebook.)

The Student Government Association (SGA) at UT-Tyler met Wednesday for its weekly meeting. Here are the highlights.

STUDENT VETERANS SEEK HELP

Josh Kasino from the Student Veterans Organization (SVO) at UT-Tyler spoke to SGA and asked the body to do something about university restrictions on on-campus fundraising.

Kasino said it is difficult for SVO's UT-Tyler chapter to raise funds to send its members to a veterans career fair because university rules prohibit student organizations from raising funds on-campus for anything or anyone other than a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The SVO representative said it is too hard for a student organization to obtain the 501(c)(3) status and so raise money for themselves.

Sen. Robert Camarillo (Soules College of Business), a member of Greek fraternity Delta Sigma Phi, told Kasino that partnering with businesses like Chipotle and Panada Express has helped his fraternity have successful fundraising.

Sen. Caleb Morrison (Student Body At Large) told Kasino that SGA can help best if SVO brings the senate policy language it would like SGA to lobby administration to adopt.

SGA took no action during the meeting about this issue and made no future plans to do so. It appeared Kasino may take members' advice and return to student government in the future if he chooses.

See the full story here: Student Veterans Organization Seeks SGA's Help To Send 50 Vets To Career Conference.

WILL CONFRONT ADMINISTRATION OVER SWOOP, REBRANDING

SGA took formal action Wednesday to draft a resolution to UT-Tyler administration voicing what the motion language said was "inadequate student input" for changing the institution's logo, mascot and rebranding.

The resolution was referred to Student Affairs Committee for construction. The senate will follow-up next week, Student Affairs Committee chair Sean Copelan said.

Treasurer Jacob Mcleod made the motion.

PERIOD PRODUCTS A "PROBLEM"

Sen. Zachariah Dare brought up something during New Business about various bathrooms on campus being offered feminine products. "And that's become a problem for some people," he said.

President Savannah Seely, who chairs the meeting, said she would meet with Dare afterwards one-on-one.

It is unclear why Seely did not respond with information right then. She has previously been generous with giving senators guidance and information during meetings.

In the past, The Campus Conservative Blog criticized Seely for not disclosing her membership in the local PERIOD chapter to the senate before participating in a SGA discussion to endorse the student group exclusively.

PERIOD is a national non-profit whose local chapters have been instrumental in lobbying universities to pay for free feminine products in campus bathrooms.

One possible explanation for why she did not give Dare information here is that she had her mind to parliamentary procedure and did not deem New Business as the appropriate time for the conversation.

Here is the video:


RELATED: SGA Memnbers Should Have Disclosed Conflict Of Interest In PERIOD Endorsement

STUDENT VOICE REPORTS

Sen. Macy Ann Williams reported that many classrooms' projectors and visual equipment in the new business building are not working.

Sen. Jimmy Counihan (Liberty Landing) said he is working on safe crossing for Liberty Landings regarding the crosswalk on Old Omen and UT-Tyler's main entrance.

RELATED: SGA members: Students unsafe at Eagle’s crosswalk; need traffic light

DID NOT MEET

Vice President Katie Hicken's Student Life committee did not meet for second week in a work. Hicken, a student athlete, cited being out of town for golf. The Student Life Committee coordinates SGA activities and events.

SVO GETS $196

The Student Government Appropriations Committee (SGAC) approved $196.00 for SVO this week, Mcleod reported. He did not say for what.

SENATOR TRAINING SATURDAY

SGA has an all-day senator training event an Saturday. It will include training on Roberts Rules of Order (parliamentary procedure) and an after-event service clean-up project like the one UT-Tyler held last spring. (I can't remember the name.)

BLOG REACTION

Overall, Seely has done an excellent job providing clear guidance as the assembly moves through parliamentary procedure. The Parliamentarian appears to have a good grasp of procedure, too.

With independent voices (finally) like Counihan willing to speak up and Seely and Coplen making parliamentary flow orderly and clearly, SGA is poised to do serious business this year.

I suspect this will be a very active SGA given the order Seely provides and independence of its members, opposite of times past. Truly unique.

However, the danger to this is that SGA's policy views will be more likely to come out, not stunted by apathy or incompetence now. Most assertive voices are Progressive. All the more important that Right-leaning senators can provide opposition, guard outcomes.

Twitter: @jhescock

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Primer to University Governance - Part One

Image
  ( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) The following is a primer to internal university governance. When you're a student, it is easy when you want to do something for yourself. Want to drop a class or change your majo r ? That's no problem. Yet, the moment you want to do something for the student community, say end a student fee or save the mascot from extinction, then you enter the realm of campus politics. Reforming campus policy requires you engage with the structure of university governance and that you participate in a democratic process. For this, you need to understand the university’s governance structure and how the powers that be set university policy. To the average student, all of this can be quite foreign. So to help students understand university governance, here is a primer to university governance. Everyone can have an introductory understanding of university governance if they understand th...
Read more

OPINION: SGA's Inaction On Student Issues Not For Inability To Act

Image
    (Logo. Source: Student Government Association at UT-Tyler.) Student government elected a new chief of staff this week in a special meeting at the end of the semester. Senator Jennifer Chandler won the assembly's vote in a three-way race among two other current SGA members, Allison Schwartz and Tyler Paige. Student members spent nearly an hour both investigating and discussing who should be the next officer in the association's executive board. That members take such an interest in their organization's affairs is commendable. However, given that the assembly displayed how it has the capacity to both investigate and deliberate over a subject matter with rigor, then I ask, why it could not also demonstrate this same rigor in matters that are undeniably of popular student concern, such as unavailable parking space and advisor shortages? The assembly's ability to both convene a special session and to debate the issues at length demonstrate that members have the ability t...
Read more

OPINION: SGA Election Awards Residential Students More Representation

Image
    (Logo. Source: Student Government Association at UT-Tyler.) Student government elected a new chief of staff this week in a special election at the end of the semester. Senator Jennifer Chandler won the assembly's vote in a three-way race among two other current SGA members, Allison Schwartz and Tyler Paige. In her campaign pitch to the assembly, Chandler championed her priority for inclusion and accessibility in SGA as well as her three years of experience as resident advisor (RA) in Ornelas Hall student housing.  With Chandler's election, Student government advances yet another residential student to a position of power. There is nothing is wrong with this in principle. After all, all students, both residential and commuter, have the right to participate in student government. However, given the obscurity with which SGA operates to most commuter students, it is mostly residential students who know about its activity and therefore stand the most to benefit from their ...
Read more