Three new bills passed at SGA meeting

During last night’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting, Senate Bill 83, 84 and 85 were introduced and passed as an emergency. The Senate passed Senate Bill 82 after the second reading. 

Senate Bill 83 is a special appropriation for the Muslim Student Association. After discussion, SGA motioned the bill to an emergency vote. The vote received unanimous approval. 

Before discussing Senate Bill 83, Regan Kolberg, chair of the finance committee, requested a fiscal guideline exemption for the food line of the appropriation. SGA’s fiscal guidelines state “Food may not account for more than 20 percent of an organization’s total budget request unless a great need is shown by the organization for a special exemption.” 

“They’re planning on putting an event on towards April, and while the event is centered towards food and culture, it’s an important part of representing their food to campus,” Kolberg said. 

Senate Bill 84 is also a special appropriation bill for the Plastic Surgery Interest Group. A representative from the organization spoke over FaceTime about what the funding would do for the group, such as reserving spaces and providing snacks for meetings. The bill was motioned as an emergency and passed unanimously.

Logan Johnson, director of finance, reported SGA’s budget for next year. He said he took a look at the programs that were not using the money budgeted to them and took them out. Two of these programs included Safe Rides and a USA Today subscription.  

Johnson introduced Senate Bill 85, a bill supporting the construction of a scoreboard for club and intramural sports. Johnson mentioned this request at last week’s meeting. The money from Safe Rides and the USA Today subscription would cover the 11 thousand dollar scoreboard. Johnson reassured SGA they would still have money left over for this year if any big projects come up. 

Johnson said it would be best to have this bill passed as an emergency, so the people in charge of the scoreboard could get a start on it. The Senate moved the bill to an emergency vote, which was unanimously passed. 

Senate Bill 82, a bill to amend special election procedure, was discussed after the second reading. The Internal Review (IR) committee discussed the bill before the second reading. This bill was moved to pass as an emergency, which also received a unanimous vote. Miranda Schulte, the chair of IR, said they support the bill as is.

“IR doesn’t have any changes to make to this, we think it’s a pretty good idea to not have one person to do five positions,” Schulte said.

SGA will not have a meeting next week. They encourage students to vote for the SGA Presidential Election beginning March 8. To listen to further discussion on the bills go to the SGA’s Facebook page to watch the livestream.