SGA senators convened Thursday night to discuss 108 proposed bills, each amending different aspects of the SGA Code of Laws. The large number of bills represents the largest comprehensive review of the Code of Laws since their inception in the 1990s.
“It’s easily the most important thing this Senate has done,” said Meg McCrummen, executive vice president of the SGA. “I’m so proud that Senate has gotten this together and is passing this — this is the final push, and we’re finishing strong.”
McCrummen conducted the reading of the proposals “popcorn style,” suspending protocol that would have had only six senators — the bills’ authors, members of a special committee dedicated to reviewing the Code of Laws — reading the proposed bills. McCrummen said the move ensured engagement on the part of all senators.
Senators Ian Sams, Peyton Falkenburg, John Anselmo, Emily McLaughlin, CadeAnn Smith and Jimmy Screven made up the committee tasked with reviewing the Code of Laws.
Among them, Sams took a leadership role, answering occasional technical questions that arose during the proposed legislations’ reading.
“Basically, earlier this semester, there was a lot of controversy on campus, over ‘did people follow rules?’ and ‘were there rules broken?’” Sams said, explaining the origins of the Code of Laws review and overhaul. “To me, it boiled down to the fact that a lot of times, those of us involved in SGA don’t know our rules, and the rules are outdated or difficult to understand.”
Changes among the 108 bills included measures that would hold the executive branch of SGA to a higher degree of accountability to the Senate.
“There are some shifts of power,” Sams said. “There are some shifts of who gets to do what, and how it gets to be done.”
Specifically, Sams referred to the proposed removal of the ability for the president to line item veto legislation.
However, most of the legislation deals with clerical corrections to the old document.
“The bottom line is that we needed to update these laws. It’s probably been upwards of 15 years since they’ve been truly, comprehensively changed,” he said. “What we wanted to do was take the documents we have and change them in a way that opens up the government to more people, and a more fair process.”
Senator John Anselmo agreed.
“A lot of people that were elected to office on March 9 talked a lot about transparency. A lot of the stuff they talked about is already in the Code of Laws, and this just furthers the transparency and open government,” he said.
“This needs to be somewhat of a symbolic call to those people who will be leading in the SGA to follow the rules and follow them thoroughly…it is imperative that we follow these rules line by line,” Anselmo said.
Other notable changes included raising the GPA eligibility requirements for executive officeholders from 2.30 to 2.50, a clarification of the impeachment process that would require 150 student signatures on a petition to begin impeachment proceedings, as well as the removal of several clauses urging predecessors to “instruct” officers-elect.
The Senate will convene a special session to vote on each of the proposed bills Tuesday night at 7:30 at a location to be determined.
“To many of the senators, this is the most significant work and most significant vote all year,” McCrummen said. “This is a large and substantive change to the Code of Laws.”
