Though this year’s SGA races are vastly unopposed, all students will have something to vote on when Tuesday rolls around: Amendments. 

In addition to candidate slots for the SGA executive board and Senate, the spring SGA ballot will feature five constitutional amendments. The majority of the amendments below were introduced and approved in a Jan. 31 Senate meeting and a Feb. 6 Senate meeting, in which a new pay scale was also approved unanimously. Full descriptions of each amendment can be found in the “Legislative Documents” section on sga.sa.ua.edu/documents

The amendments, which involve cabinet restructuring, committee creations and selection processes, are as follows:

C-01-20: Do you support adding a new executive cabinet position to the SGA Constitution?

This amendment, authored by SGA President Harrison Adams, would add a director of strategic initiatives to the executive cabinet. This person would be responsible for applying for grant money to bolster the SGA’s annual budget.

C-03-20: Do you support adding an amendment to create a committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the SGA Constitution? 

The SGA Senate is currently required to maintain six permanent committees. Four of the six committees correspond to the vice president positions for External Affairs, Student Affairs, Financial Affairs and Academic Affairs. The vice president for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is the only standing position on the executive council that does not have a corresponding committee in the Senate.

C-04-20: Do you support updating language on the composition and selection process for the First-Year Council to the SGA Constitution?

This amendment could drastically shift the demographics of First-Year Council (FYC), a program that essentially grooms interested students to become members of the SGA.

Traditionally, all applicants represented their respective residence halls and were allotted according to population sizes of each dorm. Now, this amendment will restructure the FYC selection process to allow half of its applicants to be selected on a merit basis. Applications will be reviewed by the SGA executive vice president and the director of FYC. Additionally, three of the 65 seats will be given to freshmen who don’t live on campus.

C-05-20: Do you support consolidating the executive cabinet to the SGA Constitution?

This amendment, also authored by Adams, would consolidate the Chief Implementation Officer and Chief Legislative Officer into the Chief Administrative Officer role.

C-02-20: Do you support updating language and common practices of the judicial board to the SGA Constitution?

This amendment simply clarifies unclear language and codifies common practices of the current judicial board. It was written by senator Jillian Fields and was endorsed by Clayton Lawing, the current chief justice.

Voting begins Tuesday, March 3 at 7 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. Students can access the voting portal through their myBama homepage.

This story was updated on Monday, March, 2 at 9:21 p.m.