Senate Spotlight 02/22/23
The following is an overview of the SGA Student Senate meeting held on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at 7 pm in the Riley Room of Atherton Union.
Maya Illanes | millanes@butler.edu
The meeting commenced with 19 senate members present. The Senate voted to approve the previous minutes from last week, and the business for this week began.
Director Brewer was called up to present three opposed amendments up for a vote. The inspiration for these three amendments came from the executive branch retreat that took place last fall, as well as drawing from other universities and how they run their SGA.
The first Amendment involved the creation of an archivist position for SGA. The creation of this position would allow for volumes created to be kept in the Butler library as a collection of what SGA does and the impact SGA has on campus and students. This archives amendment was called to vote and passed.
The second amendment also was voted to pass and required that any SGA meeting open to the public is to be recorded. The recordings will be placed in archives and the idea behind this public recordings amendment is to increase transparency and provide future references for future SGA to reflect.
The scholarships and awards amendment was called to vote and did not pass. This third amendment would have put SGA in charge of planning the end-of-year student leadership banquet and would have formalized regulations on how SGA will distribute scholarships at the banquet. This amendment would have allowed for the creation of nonmonetary awards to be bestowed by SGA and represented at the banquet.
The senate then voted to endorse the taekwondo club. This organization is now an official student organization on Butler’s campus and will be beneficial for student safety and increase student self-defense skill set.
The Committee chairs made announcements on upcoming events. The Diversity, Equity, and Student belonging committee is having an outreach event on Monday, March 4th, where they will be giving away Crumbl cookies on campus and encouraging students to write thank you notes to janitorial and Atherton union staff members.
Updates from the Executive branch included the new date for the campus safety walk. It was moved due to inclement weather to next Wednesday, March 1st. They shared that Project Aunt Flow is fully implemented in the Riley room bathrooms as part of the new Atherton Union renovations. Looking ahead, next week is eating disorder awareness week and SGA will be holding a clothing drive with boxes set up outside the SGA office. Student engagement is hosting a blood drive in the Riley room on March 21st. Next week, the senate meeting will be a paper meeting and the senators will participate in the Back 9 Retreat.