Senate met Thursday to discuss matters of old business, including FAC eligibility requirements, Senate transparency and other items.
The meeting began with Sam Baker alerting the Senate about four new vacancies within the Senate. Baker said four senators were removed from office after accruing four unexcused absences. Chapter 600 section 5 subsections 1-5 of the SGA Code of Laws outline attendance policy for Senators, stating that once a senator has more than three unexcused absences, the Committee of the Whole will consider a resolution calling for that Senator’s removal from office. A senator is automatically removed from office when he or she acquires a fourth unexcused absences. The senators that were removed from office are: Caleb Ward, Mary Frances Cabanas, Rebecca Rose Lutonsky and Benjamin Crawford. Baker said three of the vacancies came from the Graduate School and one came from the College of Human Environmental Sciences.
Mary Lee Caldwell, the director of Student Governance and Citizenship, said applications to fill the seats will be due on Oct. 14, and the special election to fill the seats will be held on Oct. 25.
Following this announcement, Senate passed two pieces of legislation that were discussed at the previous meeting. These items included Bill-07-16,a renewal of the Financial Affairs Committee eligibility requirements and Resolution 12 calling for Senate “transparency and accountability reform.”
In addition, Resolution 14 “encouraging The University to of Alabama to institute in-class election day reminders,” was again discussed. After some debate and a prepared speech of negation from the Elections Board, the resolution was recommitted to the Resolutions Committee for further consideration.
Also, R-15-16 discouraging the use of styrofoam was found favorable by the Resolutions Committee. However, the resolution was also in the Student Affairs Committee, which voted to keep the resolution in committee. Senator Gonzolo Rodriguez, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, attempted to get the resolution discharged from the Student Affairs Committee but did not have enough “yes” votes on the Senate floor. Therefore, the resolution will remain in the Student Affairs Committee.
Resolution 16 supporting the “Roll the Vote” campaign was again brought before the Senate. Senate discussed how to effectively beat Auburn University in this campaign, specifically noting the number of voters each University has pledged to register. After discussing, Senate agreed to change the number of voters they wish to register to 1,002 in order to make sure they will beat Auburn.
Finally, Act A-08-16 was brought up for discussion. This Act equally focuses on equally distributing “any previous fiscal year surplus in the Senate budget to senators for printing needs.” The act’s author, Robert Penally, said the act will distribute roughly $20 to senators to use at Crimson Copies for SGA purposes only. The act was unanimously passed.
Resolutions encouraging the University to “loosen meal plan requirements for students with dietary restrictions” and pledge support for a new building for the Mallet Assembly were originally on the docket but were removed because the author, Michael Smith, is not a senator and therefore needed a senator to cosponsor the legislation in order for it to be heard.
Order of Events:
1.) Bill 07 reintroduced, unanimously passed.
2.) R-12 reintroduced, unanimously passed.
3.) R-14 reintroduced, recommitted to the Resolutions Committee.
4.) R-15 reintroduced, will remain in the Student Affairs Committee.
5.) R-16 reintroduced, unanimously passed.
6.) A-08 introduced, unanimously passed.
