By Kassondra Granata
The SGA Senate showed unity at last week’s meeting with the unanimous passing of President Bergenn’s resolution to the faculty senate.
In the resolution, Bergenn addresses the lack of student voice in the faculty senate and hopes to add student voters.He brought to the attention of the student leaders that Eastern has students who can vote on their faculty senate, as well as UConn.
“We should have that representation,” said Bergenn. “The purpose is to create a sense of collaboration, teamwork and a sense of community.”
There were no points against Bergenn’s motion leading to a unanimous passing of the resolution. They then passed four motions unanimously, allocating the French Club $500, the Outing Club $1000, the NAACP $420 and the Marketing Club $500. The unity then disappeared when Senator Jamie Germaine motioned to allocate $3,000 to the Student Advisory Committee.
Kevin Leaver came forth to the senate to represent the committee and address their need for the money. The Student Advisory Council is planing on hosting an annual “Thank You” event at a winery in Preston where the council will invite alumni and others from major corporations in the area. The event looks to help business majors network.
“Doing anything to entice the alumni is a good idea,” said Germaine on his motion. “What really is an alumni dinner? It is to ask for money, and hopefully we get a lot in return.”
Senator Molly McLaughlin was against the motion, due to the fact that it was not directed to all students.
“This isn’t going to benefit all students, it is going to bring money to the school of business,” said McLaughlin. “I feel like giving them the money to do this will not bring return to the general student body.”
After a back and forth debate and the senate just making quorum, Senator Alex Kitchener motioned to put the debate on hold for two weeks. Kitchener felt that giving the senate an extra few weeks to get more information would help the senate make a better decision.
Treasurer Alaimo disagreed with Kitchener, stating that this should be addressed now. “We shouldn’t wait any longer,” said Alaimo. “All the information is here and it’s clear.”
During debate, Senator Kim Towler asked the chair how many people were needed for quorum. After Bergenn told her, Towler immediately got up and left the room, causing the senate to keep debating but making it unable to vote. Many senators, including Senator Jamie Canny were not happy with Towler’s choice to leave the meeting so that the senate did not have quorum.
“I think that it was out of order and inappropriate and in the future we shouldn’t allow inappropriate behavior like this to occur,” said Canny. “In the past, if we had something we didn’t agree with, we would raise our hand and speak against it, you do not do these ‘shady moves.’”
President Bergenn pointed out that they did not have quorum and could not vote on the motion. “What happened today was not out of order,” said Bergenn, reflecting on Towler’s actions. Bergenn plans on speaking to Towler about the choice she made during the meeting. He added, “I want to go over how I interpret something like that happening and how the senate interprets something like that happening and hope there is some mutual respect.”
Earlier in the meeting, Richard Bachoo, Chief Administrative Office for Facilities Management came to the meeting to address the senate about the circumstances of the snowstorm at the end of October and the power outage on campus. Bachoo noticed that there were several misunderstandings among the students based on the decisions the university had made in regards to cancelling classes and events.
“Safety is our highest priority,” said Bachoo. “If we thought that we could not get students here safely, we would not have made this decision. This was not a weather related issue; this was a power related issue.”
