SGA voted to take a neutral stance on the censure of the executive leadership team and approved two bills at the April 2 Senate meeting.
The senate’s decision to take a neutral stance was decided after multiple discussions, including the senate meetings on March 12 and March 19.
Vote of censure
The senate had their final discussion about the faculty assembly’s decision to censure the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) following concerns about the proposed budget in light of a $27 million budget gap and potential campus impacts.
Senators discussed the implications of a formal censure, emphasizing the seriousness of the action and the long‑term effects it could have on university leadership, faculty, staff and students.
Several senators noted that while the budget situation has caused frustration and uncertainty, there is no evidence of misconduct by the ELT.
“Regardless of who is making those [tough] decisions, they are going to have to be made, and I don’t think that it makes sense to possibly take the job away from the ELT and have some new group come in, reanalyze the problem, and ultimately come to the some solution,” said Joe Bate, the speaker pro tempore.
Two votes were held. First the senate unanimously voted to not support the censure. They then voted 7-5 to take a neutral stance. Two senators abstained from both votes.
“From my perspective, a neutral stance means choosing not to take a definitive position on the censure,” said Bate in a Teams message. “Censuring the ELT does not solve the underlying problem, it simply replaces one leadership team with another that would be forced to confront the exact same challenges and likely arrive at similar decisions.”
Senator of Residence Life and Housing bill
The senate unanimously passed the Senator of Residence Life and Housing bill, which will create a new specialized senate position to represent students living on campus.
According to Walat Gozeh, the speaker of the senate and author of the bill, residential students make up a quarter of the student population and face distinct issues related to housing policies, facilities maintenance, meal plans and campus safety.
“Residential students make up one in five students on campus. We have a Senator of Commuter Students who represents the four out of five, but there’s that one who is not represented,” Gozeh said.
The new position is intended to ensure concerns are directly represented within student government. The senator will advocate on issues such as housing policies, facilities, student safety and other residential life concerns.
Because this bill changes the SGA constitution and bylaws, before it can formally take effect it requires Chancellor approval and the fulfillment of vacancy requirements, namely losing one of the seven Senator-at-Large positions, which would be cut come the next general election cycle.
Mountain Lion Mania Hippos bill
The Senate also passed a bill to fund a hungry hippo hoop battle inflatable for $740.11 to use at the annual Mountain Lion Mania, aiming to increase student engagement.
The celebration is on May 8 in the University Center.
In other news
- SGA decided to table the Transparency Resolution indefinitely.
- Clydechella is on April 30 with Thomas Day headlining.
- The Director of MOSAIC, Whitley Hadley, briefly presented an overview of MOSAIC and how it connects to students.
Photo via the Scribe archive.