The pay scale for the Student Government Association (SGA)’s executive cabinet was established for its new fiscal year during the Senate meeting on Oct. 4.

The act was nearly sent to committee before being voted on in the meeting after a motion to immediately consider was properly seconded.

According to the act, SGA President Price McGiffert and his executive cabinet will receive amounts between $75 and $295 per month for six months. The amounts vary by position and will begin to be administered as soon as the University’s financial accounts come out of what is called a “financial blackout.”

The act’s author, Vice President of Financial Affairs Clay Gaddis, a junior majoring in biology, said the financial blackout begins on Oct. 1 for the SGA and lasts 15 days. During this time, the SGA financial affairs committee closes out each account, takes the remaining rollover money and moves it into the budget for the current year.

“The SGA will stop on the first,” Gaddis said. “So it’s 15 days that they spend closing accounts.”

Gaddis also said the SGA passed the pay scale to recognize the work that each executive officer is doing on a daily basis.

“We’re spending a lot of time in the office working with all of these things,” Gaddis said. “It’s just kind of like a little bit of a consolation for what we’re doing.”

Gaddis said if Constitutional Amendment 5 is passed during the spring election, the vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion would begin receiving payment for his or her work as a newly established vice president.

“I wanted to make note of that just so people could see that it’s in there,” Gaddis said. “When they start their official first day, it’ll start their pay.”

Senators also passed a new resolution before reintroducing and unanimously passing two acts.

The SGA’s “Voter Drive Week” was officially recognized and promoted by the Senate after they unanimously passed a resolution written by Sen. Jason Rothfarb, a sophomore majoring in political science, to encourage awareness on campus.

The SGA aims to make The University of Alabama the number one SEC school to sign up to vote using the online system, TurboVote, a system that the University has recently partnered with to encourage voter registration, said Vice President of External Affairs Harrison Adams, a junior majoring in economics and finance.

“The highest school in the SEC is LSU and they are right around 700,” Adams said. “We want to have the highest number in the SEC.”

Alabama’s current TurboVote enrollment is approximately 500 students.

Following an announcement of unanimous approval from the Senate rules committee, an act to set a deadline for legislation and the docket was passed without objection. The act, also written by Rothfarb, solidifies a 2 p.m. deadline on the day before each Senate meeting for legislation to be submitted to the secretary of the Senate. The act also confirms a 5 p.m. deadline for the docket to be released to all SGA senators, University administrators and necessary media outlets.

The Senate finance committee unanimously approved Gaddis’ act to ratify the SGA’s operating budget for the 2019 fiscal year before the Senate voted on the legislation itself.

The new budget allocates money to each branch of the SGA for the 2019 fiscal year and was also approved without objection.

Order of Events

1. The Senate broke for committees
2. The Senate reintroduced and unanimously passed Act A-33-18 to set a deadline for legislation and the docket
3. The Senate reintroduced and unanimously passed Act A-34-18 to ratify the operating budget of the SGA for the 2019 fiscal year
4. The Senate introduced and unanimously passed Resolution R-27-18 recognizing and promoting SGA voter drive week
5. The Senate introduced and unanimously passed Act A-35-18 to establish a pay scale