By Kassondra Granata
Last week the Student Government Association passed two Internal Affairs recommendations, two resolutions, a bylaw change and allocated $17,000 for the senior class trip, $2,100 to the Collada Club and $500 to the SUBOG Recognition Dinner.
Earlier in the meeting, Senior Class President and SGA Sen. Legairre Radden spoke to the senate about the senior trips. The three trips will be a cocktail party, a trip to Mohegan and a cruise ship dinner. According to Radden, the total is around $17,000.
Sen. Baldassario moved to refer the funding of the senior class trip in its entirety out of SG Account 9010 during open floor, which passed with 18 yes-votes, one no-vote and two abstentions.
Sen. Ryan Baldassario motioned to move Sen. Brian Choplick’s bylaw addition in regards to the endowment. The addition stated that “at the last transaction of each fiscal year 20 percent of the total money remaining in each SG account will be donated to the SGA Scholarship Endowment fund, which would total to be about $20,000.
“We need to start thinking about what we can do now to change it now so that in ten years we will not have the same issues we’ve had,” said Choplick. “It is going to give us more money each year that will be returned to us rather than spending money.”
Choplick said that the entire Student Life Committee, who is in charge of overseeing scholarships, were in favor of this addition. Sen. Bobby Berriault made a motion to replace the word “each” with the words “the” and the word “account” with “accounts.” After debate, he withdrew his motion. Berriault made another motion to have a stipulation to not exceed $20,000 per year for the SGA Scholarship Endowment.
Sen. Baldassario said that he does not agree with the Student Government Association offering scholarships to students.
“Although I don’t agree with it, it still would be good to put more money in the pool,” said Baldassario. The motion passed with 25 yes-votes, three no-votes and one abstention.
Sen. Cory Manento motioned to pass two resolutions from the Academic Affairs Committee. One was to send a resolution to Dr. Richard Bachoo, the chief administration officer that stated that each classroom should have clocks on the walls. That resolution passed. The second resolution on a recommendation on the commencement at the end of each year also passed.
Vice President Liz Braun motioned to pass a restructuring of Title 1 of the Internal Affairs Committee Recommendations. That motion passed. During New Business Sen. Chris Marcelli motioned to approve another Internal Affairs Committee recommendation that reads: “The President must pass or veto legislation passed by the Senate within one week of such legislation being presented for signing. If the President fails to pass or veto legislation within this time period, it is considered vetoed.”
President Eric Bergenn gave the chair to Vice President Liz Braun to make an amendment. Bergenn motioned to strike “pass or veto” in both of its occurrences and insert “act on.” The motion passed unanimously. Sen. Baldassario then motioned to strike “one week” and replace it with “seven school days.”
Bergenn said that he did not agree with Baldassario.
“I think that seven school days is better to say,” said Bergenn. “But due to personal experiences with this before the time is too short and that we should extend it.” Baldassario withdrew his motion. Bergenn then motioned to refer the motion back to the Internal Affairs Committee. It was passed.
During open floor, Sen. Kory Mills made a presentation about his club, the Collada Club, and spoke on the funding that they need in order to hold an event. After the short presentation Sen. Javier Fernandez moved to allocate $2,100 to the club.
Sen. Jeremy Truex said that debating and passing this motion would not be fair due to the lack of senators at the meeting at the present time.
“It just would not be fair to discuss it because the senate barely has quorum,” said Truex. The motion passed with 14 yes-votes, five no-votes and two abstentions. Continuing on open floor Sen. Choplick motioned to allocate $1500 to the SUBOG (Student Union Board of Governors) Recognition Dinner.
Sen. Marcelli made a motion to only allocate $500 to SUBOG for food. The amendment passed with 17 yes-votes one no-vote and two abstentions. After debate, the motion passed with nine yes-votes and eight no-votes to allocate the $500.