After the 10-hour marathon last week, Student Government Association welcomed special guest Dean of Students Scott Smith.
Smith made a brief presentation on the new bias incident protocol, which was presented to address the recent upswing in bias-related incidents.
The new protocol hopes to differentiate between different types of prejudicial actions, with three types being mentioned: harassment, hate crimes and bias-related incidents. This new strategy in handling the incidents would define the different terms and create different sanctions for each type of offense.
After Smith’s presentation, two new organizations were chartered. The first, the League of Laughter, is a campus comedy improv group, led by President Chris Lyons. The group used an improv skit and some well-timed humor to woo the Senate, and mentioned the benefits of a group such as theirs.
Next up was Active Minds, a group concentrated on educating students about mental health and ending the stigma surrounding mental illness.
The next issue addressed was the allocation of funding toward two student groups, Unite for Sight and Ultimate Frisbee Club. Unite for Sight had not received funding at the previous SGA meeting due to its failure to submit a budget. It was given an additional chance to receive funding through a private meeting, but failed to attend that as well.
John Cook School of Business Senator Samantha Morr rose to the defense of Unite for Sight. She stated
“It’s clear that there was some miscommunication with this being Unite for Sight’s first time through the funding process. With the changeover of the financial vice president, it was a confusing process,” Morr said.
The bill was passed for the $1,240.39 allocation to Unite for Sight, and an amendment to increase the funding to $1,516.83 was denied.
The next bill voted upon was a request for spot-funding by the Ultimate Frisbee Club. Both the men’s and women’s team qualified for the regional tournament, and requested $3,254 to cover registration, travel and hotel accommodations. The bill was passed unanimously.
The next topic discussed was a Senate resolution to create an ad-hoc task force to coordinate and provide leadership concerning socio-economic diversity efforts. The socioeconomic initiative would be known as SLU/FUSED, (SLU For Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity).
Vice President of Diversity and Social Justice Jamie James was presented with financial questions regarding the initiative.
“We’re looking to redistribute funds and place an emphasis on a family emergency fund,” she said.
The Senate passed the resolution to create the ad hoc task force. Next in line was the reconsideration of appeals for annual funding. In one of the most discussed topics of the night, Black Student Alliance made an appeal for an additional $4,530 to support its yearly trip.
The money would go to cover 40 percent of the trip. The question posed to President-Elect Charles Turner, who is also a senator, was how the trip would benefit the SLU community as a whole.
“We recognize the tradition, but being in the habit of basing things for next year in the tradition of something happening isn’t a practice. We wanted to continue we wanted to look at each event individually,” Financial Vice President Tim Janczewsk said.
The initial request for $4,530 was rejected, but an amendment to allocate $2,500 to BSA was passed.
Additional funding for SLU TV was considered next, with the organization requesting $1,350 to purchase more cameras.
SLU TV allows other student organizations to borrow its cameras and also helps with film production. The amendment was passed, and SLU TV’s budget was increased to $8,140.08.
The next order of business was to amend SGA Constitution. The first amendment, which would have the ASSLU SGA represent the entire student body in order to promote more student involvement within SGA, was tabled until the next meeting.
The second reform to the constitution regarded SGA’s election process, and sought to increase participation in the elections. The amendment was passed.
To wrap up the meeting, the SGA budget was also considered. An amendment to lower the SGA budget by $2,000 was ultimately rejected. If the budget were to be cut, the yearly SGA retreat and other internal conferences would be cut with it.
President Michael Harriss attested to the effectiveness of such retreats and conferences.
“Without this retreat, I would have no idea what’s going on with parliamentary procedure,” Harriss said. “This is where we prepare ourselves. This is crucial to having a successful organization.”
