SGA unanimously increases requirements

After a great deal of discussion and two separate unanimous votes by the SGA Senate, a resolution to amend Article II Section D and Article III Section C of the SGA Constitution has been passed.

The resolution set forth and written by Senators Stephen Hundley and Ryan Del Campo is aimed to fill holes in the constitution. It holds senators to the same precedent laid out for SGA executive officers that fall below the GPA requirements, and furthermore sends any senator or executive officer directly to the Student Judicial Board if he falls into poor judicial standing during his time in office. At that time, if the justices deem by a majority vote that person is unfit to hold his position, then that member would be removed from office.

Hundley says that in the past there was no provision for a student running for senate or an executive position who fell into poor judicial standing. He went on to say that it is essentially an auto-impeaching tool, which sends them straight to the Student Judicial Board rather than having to spend time holding a special session to vote on whether or not they should be sent to the judicial board.

“We just tidied up the document, our constitution, and made it so you have to have and maintain good judicial standing to run and to have a seat and, if not, this is how we are going to deal with it now,” Hundley said. “We are going to send it to J-board and we are sending it to J-board for a variety of reasons. My favorite of which is now our executives and our senators are being judged by the exact same body, in the exact same way that all our students are being judged. We’re all in the exact same level, its fair and I really like that.”

SGA President Pro Tempore Maxwell Pichan says he supports everything the resolution does and believes it was a good decision to change the process SGA members go through when they are put into poor judicial standing.

“By sending people who are put on bad judicial probation straight to the J-board for consideration, you bypass a lot of just bureaucratic stuff that takes up our time,” Pichan said. “It’s not like an automatic removal system, we are simply referring them to a group that they’ve already gone and talked to and they are able to look into each issue case by case, which is what they do on a daily basis and make that call.”

In the past there was no legislation concerning what should happen to a senator if he or she was to fall below the minimum GPA requirement. The resolution seeks to add this and states that Article III, Section C be revised and read

that in order to be eligible to run for a position within senate, the student must have a grade point average of 2.30 or higher, as well as be in good academic standing with the university. Senators falling below the requirement shall automatically be removed at the end of the current academic semester.

Senator Brian Demeza says he himself has a lower GPA but believes that the standard set forth for senators to have a 2.3 GPA and maintain that GPA is a fair one.

“I have a pretty low GPA; its just hard, I think that that’s a good standard and I didn’t see why everyone was getting so upset about it all,” Demeza said. “If your GPA is that low, you probably need to focus on school anyways.”

SGA President Evan Karanovich supports the additions proposed for the constitution set forth by the resolution.

“By no means do I think this is a bad step. I think it’s a good step in the right direction,” Karanovich said. “It’s just unfortunate that you can’t do it without having it written. Some things need to be written in black and white, though, to make it clear and that’s what I think this is trying to do.”

During the two-week discussion of the resolution Senator Victoria Ferree spoke to her fellow SGA members at the weekly senate session that took place on Oct. 26 .

In her speech Ferree voiced her concern for the recent arrest and legal incidents concerning members of the senate and furthermore said that in the past weeks she has not felt like she is a part of that group she so firmly felt SGA was.

She indicated she joined SGA with the intent to be a part of a group of responsible students that are dedicated to better the student body and its interests and furthermore they are there to set an example for the student body during their time in office.

“There are many times throughout this past week that I have felt a part of this kind of group, however within this past month there have been too many times I’ve felt embarrassed to be a member of student government,” Ferree said. “Instead of people acting with decorum outside of this conference room they have decided to tarnish the reputations of themselves and therefore the reputation of this group as a whole. We need to be setting the bar a little bit higher.”

The referendum for the resolution will be available for students to vote on by the end of November or early December. President Pro Tempore Pichan is currently looking into putting the ballot out on myCATS or OrgSync when the time comes for the students to vote on the referendum. If the students vote for it, the resolution will take affect on Jan. 1, 2012.

Posted by Lauren Davidson on Nov 10 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.