Written by: JD Davern

After a relaxing fall break, SGA got back down to work on Friday, discussing quite a bit of business during the post vacation joinder.

Senator Cedric Norris announced an open forum to take place in November and Senator Courtney LeBeau gave an update on the progress of the Puppies and Pumpkins event. However, the meeting’s big ticket item was a discussion on the qualifications for attorney general.

President Pro Tempore Mike Muller introduced a resolution to amend the SGA constitution to tighten the requirements on who can run for the position. “The succession says that you have to be a senator for one semester to be appointed. I want to change it so that you have to be a justice for at least one semester so they have experience,” Muller said. “That kind of debate is centered around ‘should we just make it open to anybody, or should we just make it a justice.’”

The resolution, if passed, will take effect upon the end of the current attorney general’s term and aims to ensure that those who run for attorney general have the necessary background to handle the decisions and pressure that comes with it. Some senators agreed with Muller, while others were in hearty disagreement with the proposed qualifications.

“There will never be an entirely baby board. There will never be an inexperienced board where someone could not succeed the attorney general. Some of these days you go home and you do not feel good about your decisions. You don’t know what we do. We’re not allowed to tell you what we do, but we can attest that it’s a pretty hard job,” Senator Kameron Griffin said.

Doctor Andy Lewter, Dean of Student services, sat in on the meeting and offered his own perspective on the changes.

“The person that’s going to be the attorney general needs to have some experience on how the board runs because in those board meetings, some of them are about ‘you shouldn’t have had a beer, you’re 18.’ Some of them are ‘we’re going to suspend you from the university, and you’re no longer a student,’ and some of those are quite contentious. To have someone with no experience I think would be pretty tough, and I would be nervous about their ability to do that,” Lewter said.

The resolution is still in the planning stages and hasn’t been approved on any level by SGA. Like everything else the senate discussed, it will come up for a vote at a later date.