Dear Bearcats,
SGA’s new constitution is nearing its vote of approval. All Constitutions must first be accepted through the Senate and then passed by the Student Body.
Many of you may have experienced first-hand, or at least heard from your friends, the horrendous “vagueness” of Student Government Association’s Constitution that was last revised in 2007 and has long been due for a complete overhaul. SGA would now like to officially announce to the public that our Constitution Committee has gone through the entire document, line by line, deleting many of the unnecessary content that used to be in our Constitution (i.e. proxy votes that never specified if one’s “proxy” could be shared amongst two or more separate individuals). More importantly, however, President Darren Meeker, as well as other Senators, including Tyler Wallin, have contributed knowledge gained from previous leadership conferences to help us not just take out the failures of our Constitution, but add in many new and amazing features. Members Olivia Vanwey, TJ Kelly, Ben Pollard, Lucas Barker and many others have helped pick apart the Constitution from every angle and even managed to conquer the new financial appropriations policies that we hope to use immediately following ratification. Our Constitution Committee has put in over thirty hours outside of SGA meetings since last August for research and development of a brand new blueprint for all of our business and organizational procedures and we want you to know all of the new parts we’re excited for.
In our new Constitution we have removed the position of Student Counselor. Instead of this position, we will now have positions for Public Relations and a Parliamentarian. There will still be five Senator positions for each class, but now there will also be three additional seats that can only be filled by commuter students and one seat that can only be filled by a non-traditional student. We now have very detailed expectations of all SGA positions, creating more accountability and thorough proceedings outlined for filling vacancies and impeachment.
Registered Student Organizations – SGA wants to make it clear that our financial appropriation procedures are changing drastically (i.e. budget requests). We will be revamping our budget request packet in the following weeks. With the new Constitution we will be accepting Budget Requests less frequently throughout the year. With the new process, RSO’s shall submit budget requests to the Finance Committee who shall discuss and review the requests in accordance to the bylaws of appropriations and make recommendations to the Senate once a month. After the Finance Committee has reviewed a budget request and presented recommendations to the Senate, the Senate shall distribute funds through a simple majority vote. The Finance Committee will be handling nearly all of the voting regarding Budget Requests. We have outlined specifically what criteria voting should be made on and will more heavily emphasize that organizations must be accountable for their own funding. SGA funds should not be your first, second, or third source for funding.
Good news! Recently registered student organizations will have an opportunity to apply for “start-up” funding. These groups may request funding to organize their own fundraiser and then return the funds to SGA following their fundraiser, keeping any profit made.
What else is new? There are now outlined procedures for recall, initiative and referendum. There will be an upcoming campaign for our Student Sustainability Fund Proposal (please contact Jessica Tieman jitieman@mckendree.edufor questions) and you may have an opportunity to participate in our first campus referendum. We are always striving to make our decisions and voting very transparent, and we welcome any and all notes, recordings and etcetera during our meetings. We also publicize our voting record in all meeting minutes sent out to campus via email.
Please don’t forget to contact your senators with any issues, concerns, suggestions or questions. You do not have to physically attend our meetings Monday nights at 9:00pm to have your voice heard. We answer through email, social media and passing by on campus. We are eager to represent you.
Sincerely,
Jessica Tieman, SGA Student Counselor on behalf of SGA