Bill looks to amend handbook

The Student Senate spent an extended amount of time debating the wording of a resolution bill on Tuesday evening. The bill commended the Elections Commission and commissioner on a job well done and thanked them for all the time put into the elections.

"I think that is important that we as an organization stand behind the people who so willingly volunteered their time to help us out," sophomore Brendan Travis said. "It does not matter whether or not you agree with their decisions or not, or the final outcome of the election, the fact remains that they did a stellar job."

Two motions were made to amend the bill, however, after much debate neither of the amendments passed.

"In no way do I wish to slight the work of the elections commission," sophomore Stephanie Genco said. "I participated in debate tonight because I think, as an organization, the SGA has a responsibility to acknowledge that many students raised issues and questioned the way we run our elections."

The bill passed as submitted by Travis, with no amendments.

The Student Senate also passed a bill of resolution to encourage the Board of Visitors to the add sexual orientation to all non-discrimination policies at JMU.

Under the rules of some JMU handbooks, an employee cannot be fired or discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. However, other handbooks do not include such protections against discrimination. This bill tells the Board of Visitors that the SGA supports adding sexual orientation to non-discrimination policies for all of JMU, clearing any confusion between handbooks.

The bill passed with a role call vote. Forty-three senators voted for the bill, two voted against the bill and three abstained from voting.

"Essentially, this would make sure that no faculty, staff or administration official could be removed or otherwise discriminated against based solely on their actual or perceived sexual orientation," senior JohnAlex Golden said.

A constitutional amendment was passed to change minor errors or inconsistencies in the constitution.

The constitutional bill to remove class council seats in the Student Senate was tabled and will be discussed next week.

"The class council bill was tabled so that the amended version of the bill could be discussed at the same time that the original bill was debated, thus allowing for an alternative to be resented at the same time," senior Ricardo Piñeres said.

Two new bills were presented to the Student Senate which asked for money from reserve accounts. C.A.R.E. and the Sports Club Council submitted bills requesting money from their reserve accounts. Both bills were moved to the finance committee and will be debated and voted on next week.