SGA swears in senators, amends first senate bill

The USD Student Government Association swore in 10 new senators over Zoom conferencing on Tuesday night. The body also discussed the updating of the first Senate bill of the new session and the impact it would have on the current administration.

The new senators are Ashley Charlie, Tallon Everson, Logan Johnson, Jennifer Kennedy, Reagan Kolberg, Caitlin Kroemer, Kenley Lamberty, Elsa Leighton, Naivetya Patle and Miranda Schulte. The meeting marked the second time a body of student representatives was sworn into office over Zoom Conferencing.

SGA discussed Senate Bill 1, a bill to establish the Campus Leaders Mixers in the SGA governing documents, which, as reported last week, would make hosting CLMs the joint responsibility of SGA’s Director of Communications and the Student Affairs Committee. The bill was amended, however, so as to make the bill take effect immediately, as the bill in its past form would not have taken effect until the next SGA administration.

“If we want it to take effect for Director Katie Brust, we have to have a 3/4ths majority vote from the Senate,” senator Alexandra Feiner said.

Senator Jacob Holmberg, bill sponsor, said the bill would be helpful in providing administrative framework for the hosting of CLMs.

“I’m very happy to see (the bill amended) so that we can start working on CLMs and have the structure there for the coming term once we hopefully return to campus in the fall,” Holmberg said.

Former SGA senator Kevin Huizenga spoke at the meeting, asking the body to consider adding information on legislation from past administrations to the SGA public Google Drive. Currently, the public can only see legislation from the present administration.

Huizenga said allowing the public to see bills and resolutions from past administrations as well as introduction dates would prove helpful to future hopeful senators.

“I think it would be beneficial for students and people who are potentially interested in the senate to see what SGA has done over time,” Huizenga said.