In the April 6 Student Government Association meeting, a bill from last week was the prime focus of the meeting. One vote decided the outcome of the bill, which was intended to allow non-international students to run for the position of Vice President of International Affairs. The bill failed to pass through the divided Senate.

SGA’s bylaws regarding the requirements to run for the position of Vice President of International Affairs currently state that a candidate must be an international student in order to run for the position.

The amendment would have stricken this requirement, allowing both domestic and international students to run.
The senate was divided on the issue. The persisting argument for the bill stated that the amendment would promote inclusiveness and broaden the applicant pool to ensure the best possible candidate.

The opposing side stated that only an international student could have the appropriate experience necessary to accurately represent the international student body.

“A lot of people I’ve talked to are not in favor of this amendment,” co-president elect of the International Student Federation, Piera Blandon said. “International student should be represented by international students, like business school students should be represented by business school students.”

Commuter student senator, Andrew Stevens, disagreed that senate should disregard a qualified candidate because they are not international.

“I’m in favor of this because I have yet to hear a negative outcome,” Stevens said. “An international student may understand better, but I think it’s wrong to keep someone qualified out of the position. If students are informed as they should be, they will make the best pick.”

The debate of the bill called into question personal bias with the amendment, as well as if a domestic student could understand the cultural background of an international student.

When the amendment was finally voted on, 22 senators voted for, 16 voted against, and three abstained, causing the bill to fail by one vote.

SGA also seated two new senators and allocated $300 in spot funding to Beta Alpha PSI for a regional meeting.
The last bill, which proposed an amendment to the association’s bylaws to update the information for the Information Technology Committee regarding recent changes , was tabled until next week.