Bill to change commencement voted down

The bill put forth by the University Senate that would limit participation in commencement did not pass during the vote that took place on Monday, Feb. 26.
The bill, which had been proposed by the Academic Governance Committee, would have restricted any student from participating in the Spring commencement ceremony if they had not completed all the requirements of their degree.
“The room was pretty split,” said Janessa Hartmann, president of SGA, and voting member of the University Senate. The previous vote, taken in January, had been an even tie.
Before the vote was taken, the bill was amended one last time. This “friendly” amendment changed the bill to omit the “in the Spring” clause, in case Winter or Fall graduations were ever reintroduced. All classes would need to be completed at any time of graduation.
“(The committee) spoke for about 15 minutes,” SGA senator Ryan Greene said. “Then they voted, and the vote did not pass.”
Hartmann was pleased with the result, as she thought students should have had more of an influence in the decision.
“One of the faculty made a comment, talking about the philosophy between whether commencement was a celebration or a rite of passage,” Hartmann said. “My personal feelings are that this committee had to decide if it was a rite of passage, and I think it doesn’t make much sense that a committee of mostly faculty and staff should decide.”
Hartmann was pleased with the number of faculty members who were opposed to the bill.
“I was surprised,” Hartmann said. “Many teachers stood up for the students.”
Doug Oetter, assistant professor of geography, and Sandra Godwin, assistant professor of sociology, both spoke on behalf of the students.
The Colonnade was unable to contact a faculty member before deadline.
There are no plans to try to continue to introduce the bill at this time.
Dr. Beth Rushing plans to introduce a new proposal that would limit the number of classes that a student can drop over the course of their studies at GCSU at the next meeting, which will occur on March 26.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 2 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry