Senate creates two new positions

The Student Government Association announced the creation of two new executive positions and passed three of four bills Tuesday.

Student Body President Levar Stoney said the Executive Council voted last Thursday to add a director of government relations and a director of cultural affairs to its current seven-member executive staff.

Junior Tom Culligan, SGA chief of staff and student body president-elect, said the director of government relations will work with Virginia 21, JMU's lobbying organization in Richmond to bring recognition and funding to JMU. The director also will work with voter registration, the Legislative Action Committee and attend Harrisonburg City Council meetings to increase representation of the JMU student body.

The director of cultural affairs will work with diversity, social and cultural affairs to help the administration and students with issues that affect the campus, according to the SGA Web site sga.jmu.edu. The director also will be a liason between the student body, administration and the SGA.

Applicants to the two new positions must be in good academic standing and may not be current senators in SGA.

Applications are due April 12 by 5 p.m. to Culligan in the SGA office in Taylor Hall, room 203. For more information on the positions and its requirements, visit the SGA's Web site.

The Senate unanimously passed Finance Bill 20 — the Matthew Lee Montgomery Danville Memorial Scholarship. The bill requested $1,500 from the SGA reserve account to guarantee the continuation of the scholarship.

The Senate also passed Finance Bill 21, which gives $492.58 to the Christian Student Union.

Senior Amanda Hayes, president of the Christian Student Union, said the money is necessary for her organization because it needs an "upgrade in sound equipment," she said. The money will be used to fix a speaker, buy a new microphone and a wireless lapel microphone.

The Senate also passed Finance Bill 23, which gaves $2,000 to the American Choral Director Association.

However, Finance Bill 22 for the Contemporary Gospel Singers did not pass. The group requested $723.71, but questions remained as to where the money would be going so the bill was voted down.

Junior Matt Gray, SGA finance committee head, said he received an e-mail from the Contemporary Gospel Singers telling him they knew the numbers for the funds they requested from SGA were incorrect, and that they wanted to add and subtract certain items from their list of requests.

Since the revising of a bill through e-mail does not follow with the SGA's standard process, the finance committee removed the Contemporary Gospel Singers' items from the bill — including funds for a deejay — because the organization's figures were inaccurate.

The finance committee amended the bill to $128.05. However, after the meeting, the committee learned even that number may still not have been correct.

"[The Contemporary Gospel Singers] didn't know what things would cost," Gray said. "The numbers weren't at all accurate."

Senior Katherine Ferguson, College of Business senator, said the liaison between the finance committee and the organizations requesting money. "Categories of ‘miscellaneous and other' [on a club's request for money] is unacceptable when we are giving out student money.

"We cannot give out student money for [a group's inaccurate estimate]," she added.

The Senate was faced with the decision on whether to send the bill back to the finance committee, pass the bill as is — despite inaccurate figures — or veto the bill in its entirety.

Some senators said they felt there was a communication breakdown which resulted in the Contemporary Gospel Singers incorrectly filling out their forms to receive money.

"This is SGA's fault as much as the Contemporary Gospel Singers,'" said junior Ricardo Pineres, SGA committee chairperson for academic affairs. "We messed up in this process at some point. There was miscommunication [on the part of both parties involved]."

However, junior Lauren Brousssard, diversity committee head., said the blame should not be put on the finance committee. "There is a contingency liaison there for a reason," she said.

"Nothing against [the Contemporary Gospel Singers], but this is how things are done."

After more debate, the Senate finally vetoed the bill.

The Senate passed Resolution 20, which said the SGA supports making JMU part of the Energy Star program, part of an Environmental Protection Agency initative. JMU would receive free packets of information with steps that students and administrators could take to make the school more energy efficient.

The Senate also passed Resolution 21 to recognize the March Student of the Month. This was awarded to junior Wendy deGorter who has a 3.9 grade-point average and is a University Recreation marketing assistant, psychology teaching assistant and a member of Boarderline, JMU's snowboarding club.