The SGA Senate met Thursday to focus on a wide variety of business including football block seating, student organization funding requests and International Opioid Awareness Day.
First up was voting on the proposed amendments to the SGA Constitution to remove the executive secretary position on the Executive Council and replace it with a new vice president for communications position. Both passed unanimously.
“The changes are to ensure consistent and reliable communication with the student body and to inform students about its initiatives, events, and decisions,” the meeting press release said.
A bill proposed by Sens. Carter Rawson and Jonas Scofield for the Culverhouse College of Business to revise the SGA code of laws regarding student organization seating at football games passed and will take effect for the 2025 football season, “ensuring there is fair representation in the Student Organization seating process.”
“This bill was to make some amendments to the application process, as well as to how complaints are filed, in regards to block seating,” Rawson said. The amendments included a form on the SGA website for complaints, adding a wellness criteria to student organizations’ presentations and a requirement for contracts to be turned in before the first game of the season.
A resolution authored by Sen. Freddie Nelson of the College of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with two students — Grace Murphy, a senior majoring in advertising, and Aydan Graham, a junior majoring in international studies and political science — was filed for the University to recognize International Opioid Awareness days. It cited the fact that 12% of college students have reported using opioids in an unhealthy manner, and that for every 100,000 deaths in Alabama, 31.5 of them are drug overdoses.
“Opioid awareness is a pressing issue on our campus, and this resolution is going to make sure that we as a student body and as a Student Government Association are working towards making sure that this issue is addressed on campus,” Graham said.
International Opioid Awareness Day falls on Aug. 31, and if the resolution is passed, it would be recognized by the University with infographics, tabling efforts and collaboration with groups such as Project Health and End Overdose. This resolution was recommended to the belonging and wellness committee for further review.
“With this resolution we can focus on passing out narcan and fentanyl testing ships and just by having this support, we can be the first school in the SEC to really make a difference in this type of issue,” Murphy said.
A resolution authored by College of Communication and Information Sciences Sens. Hailey Adams, Mia Johnston and Sarah Lu Priester were presented with the goal of adding a handout about the college’s student organizations into advisors’ offices. The resolution reasoned that the intention of advising sessions is to help underclassmen plan their future and that the college’s 28 student organizations are there to set up students for success in the workforce.
“This bill is just to get handouts into the advisors’ offices with all of the organizations within the college. It’s going to be paid for by the college, and each year the senators for the college are going to be in charge of updating it,” Johnston said.
The resolution was favorably reviewed by the academic affairs committee and passed by the Senate.
Finally, the act to approve student organization funding requests, recommended by Sen. Carson Champion of the College of Education for immediate consideration on the floor, passed unanimously, delegating $26,960.25 to seven organizations.