SGA prepares for new year with officers, bills

Senate votes to keep board rep selection by election

The Student Government Association debated several bills during its Tuesday meeting, including one that attempted to create a new executive council position.

The first resolution involved sending a message to the Board of Visitors. The board is discussing the method to use in order to pick a student representative. Currently, the student representative is chosen through popular election, but the board wants to change it so the new member is chosen through an application process.

“We need a voice at [the board], not a [board] hand-picked choice,” said junior Ricardo Pineres, Ashby Hall senator. ”Why shouldn’t all students at JMU get a choice about who represents them on the board? It is the students’ representative.”

The Senate voted and passed the resolution that told the board and campus it preferred the method of election for student representative that currently is used.

The second resolution was put forth an order to offer support for JMU President Linwood Rose’s diversity plan. This bill states that the SGA supports what Rose and his diversity commission are trying to do to make the university more diverse. This bill was passed unanimously.

The final resolution asked the Senate to create a new position on the executive council. The position would be called “Students Involved in Changing Our Culture” coordinator.

This person would be in charge of addressing issues facing the campus, and assisting students and administrators in handling the most important issues at JMU, according to junior Lauren Broussard, the diversity affairs committee head who wrote the bill.

The coordinator would help compile programs and publicize events. He or she would help improve SGA’s relationship with the administration, and be a liaison between SGA and the administration and also between the SGA and the student body when it came to certain issues the student body and administration found important, such as diversity or parking.

The Senate did not pass the bill by one vote. The Senate was split on the issue 26-26, and the speaker, senior Matt Benjamin, voted against the bill with the tiebreaker vote. The Senate had some issues with the bill, including that the duties for the position already seemed to be covered by the diversity affairs committee according to sophomore Wesli Spencer, sophomore class president.

According to Parliamentarian Michael Dickie, the Senate could not create the position, but could only express its support for or against creating a new executive position. The creation of a new position is left up to the executive council.

Student Body President elect Tom Culligan said the new executive council will consider creating the position even though the Senate voted against it.

The other two bills updated the SGA bylaws so they were consistent with other documents.