The SGA passed legislation to make a CrossingPoints delegate a non-voting member for the Senate and sent a proposed constitutional amendment regarding elections to the rules committee on Thursday.
Hannah Hurd, SGA vice president for belonging and wellness, introduced Bill B-07-25, along with Mary Kate Foster, a senator for the Barefield College of Arts and Sciences, and Connor Guthrie, a senator for the Lee J. Styslinger Jr. College of Engineering.
Foster said the bill would create an “opportunity for a Crossing Points delegate to serve as a non-voting member of our Senate.”
CrossingPoints is a partnership between the College of Education’s Department of Special Education & Multiple Abilities and the Tuscaloosa City and County school systems. The program provides “transition services for students with disabilities ages 18-21” and introduces them to job settings up to four days a week.
Last year, Aubrei Grisaffe, SGA executive vice president, introduced a program in which a CrossingPoints delegate served on the SGA’s First Year Council program as a non-voting member.
Foster said the experience of having a CrossingPoints First Year Council delegate last year was “rewarding.”
Guthrie said that the position would be a great way for the belonging and wellness committee to “get the ball rolling.”
The bill passed unanimously.
The Senate also passed a resolution honoring Dr. Edward Tang, who died earlier this month, and introduced Act A-20-25 that would allocate SGA funds to tornado safety magnets.
Act A-20-25 was sent to the Student Affairs Committee for review.
Katherine Steel, a senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, introduced constitutional amendment C-03-25 in collaboration with a senator for the law school, Tristin Lollar. The amendment would amend the SGA constitution to disqualify anyone attempting to graduate within an SGA term from running for office to prevent special elections.
Steel said that earlier in the year, someone who ran for a Senate office gave a speech saying he was graduating midterm.
“This amendment is to close that graduation loophole to prevent special spring elections, to prevent anyone graduating within their term from running again,” she said.
According to Steel’s proposed amendment, she was referring to Scott Ratchford, who was elected as a senator for the graduate school in February 2025 but graduated in May 2025. Ratchford ran for Secretary of the Senate, a position currently held by Theo Villanueva.
In Ratchford’s campaign speech, he said the SGA’s constitution doesn’t disqualify students who are graduating in the middle of the SGA term from running for office.
According to the SGA constitution, “candidates for elected SGA office shall be full-time students at The University of Alabama, meeting established qualification before election day.”
“I graduate on May 3rd of this year. I shouldn’t have been eligible,” Ratchford said. “I’d like to bring this to your attention, because I won’t be here next time we get to vote on amendments for the SGA constitution, and I hope that one of you will bring up an amendment to the SGA constitution to help close this loophole.”
The act was sent to the Rules Committee for review.
