Tracking Senate attendance

Student Senate approves posting of meeting records on SGA Web site

The Student Senate approved posting senator attendance records online at its meeting Tuesday night.

"As senators, we have an accountability to our constituents," sophomore senator Brendan Travis said. "They should be able to see if you are attending meetings."

Senators also debated whether or not to post attendance at committee meetings.

"Last year, on my committee, there was a senior who was a great member and did plenty of work, but had a class and couldn’t come to the meetings," said junior Jake Miller, college of education senator.

Junior Senator Jess Misner said, "Committees are part of your SGA responsibilities, but most [members] don’t take them seriously. It’s just one meeting a week and it’s part of being in SGA."

Twenty-eight senators voted to pass the amendment and 25 voted against it. The attendance records will be posted on the SGA Web site, http://sga.jmu.edu.

The Senate also amended and approved its house rules for the coming year.

"Basically, we took the house rules from last year and changed a few things," said sophomore Kristen Schiavone, chair of the communications and internal affairs committee. "The main thing is proxies have to be in the office by 3 p.m. instead of 5 p.m." A proxy is a piece of paper that acts as an absent senator’s vote. It is given to a senator who will be at the meeting, and says that their vote will count twice.

An amendment to the house rules did not pass that asked senators to provide two copies of new bills instead of the old requirement of three copies to the executive assistant and Speaker of the Senate.

"I worked as executive assistant last year and we used all three bills," Misner said. "One went to the Speaker of the Senate, the other the executive assistant kept in the records and the other stayed in the office for senators to look at."

Four new bills were introduced to the Senate. The first and second bills, written by senior Lucy Hutchinson covered the finances of honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi and OrangeBand. The organizations asked for money from contingency. Phi Sigma Pi asked for $4,000 for a Megan Stidham Scholarship Fund and to send members to a national convention. OrangeBand also asked for $4,000 for equipment, two action campaigns and chapter training expenses. These bills both were approved to go to the finance committee.

Travis submitted bills to add a contingency liaison and a minor elections commissioner to the Senate.

Both of these bills are going to sit on the Senate floor and will be discussed in two weeks.

Travis said that the process for applying for contingency funds is confusing and that a liaison would allow a clearer, more expedited application process.