SGA talks student feedback, exam scheduling

Student Government Association officers announced plans to gain more student feedback and involvement at their first general meeting of the semester on Tuesday.

Sophomore Megan FitzGerald, vice president of university affairs, updated members on current proposals, including the addition of security cameras to lots one, seven and 88 (the Ice Arena, Clayton Hall and the Field House), which is up for vote in October. 

Members are also working on ways to help students who have multiple final exams in one day.

“Right now there’s no policy intact that says if you’re scheduled for three finals back-to-back to back, that you can’t get out of it,” FitzGerald said. “Other schools have policies that say you can reschedule one of your exams, but we don’t.”

FitzGerald said the group is also in the beginning stages of creating a system to send text alerts when laundry is finished in the residence halls. She also said they want to create a “Green Senate” where environmental groups can collaborate about issues on campus. 

Senior Dave Mroz, chief justice of SGA, said the board has changed the process for proposing ideas so they are backed with more evidence. Members must fill out a proposal packet that includes research and student polling. It must be submitted 10 days before meetings so senators can read and understand it prior to making a decision.

“Come voting time, you cannot just say this is a great idea, but you can show what other schools are doing, what the student body has been saying in polls and things like that,” Mroz said.

Tierney Keller, the executive vice president of SGA, said this change was made so proposals will have more information. 

“We don’t want to just throw something out there just to get a proposal done,” Keller said. “We want to make sure that it’s meaningful, it’s useful and that the student body sees that as a positive change for campus.”

The proposal will pass if senators have majority vote, Mroz said. Barineau can sign it or veto it. If 3/5 of the legislature agrees, they can overturn the veto. At forum voting can only happen if 2/3 of the legislature is there, he said. Absent senators can still vote by filling out a proxy form and handing it to a senator, Mroz said.

In March, the SGA voted on structural changes that increased the number of senators from 29 to 32. They also added a judicial branch to discipline SGA members and ensure their work is in accordance with the constitution. 

Mroz said senators will vote for the bylaws this month. Elections for 13 new residential, academic and student affairs committee senators will take place on Monday according to Keller.

Sophomore Ben Page-Gil, the public relations senator, introduced an online suggestion box called UDecide where students see each other’s ideas and vote for them. They can also suggest new ones without having to go to the SGA office, he said.