The Student Body Senate had its first official meeting Sept. 10, following the Summer Summit Orientation meeting last week. Senate Resolution 106-03 was tabled last week and brought back into discussion for this meeting and adopted after a 16-1 vote.
The resolution proposed an amendment to the bylaws to change the duties required by senators. This resolution allows senators to partake in activities and projects of their choice rather than solely student organization events and campus engagements to improve and increase the involvement of senators on campus.
Student Body President Ethan Smith emphasized his support for this resolution and said he has been in support of this amendment for several years.
“I’ve been pushing for this since I was a senator back in 2017,” Smith said. “I submitted a nearly identical bill back then, but it was not passed. We decided to revisit the issue to build on increased productivity in the senate and to encourage senators to invest their time in passion projects.”
Although senators are only required to attend one event per month, Senator Nick Galluzzo stressed that this resolution “is setting a minimum requirement, not a maximum requirement.” The overall goal is to encourage the activeness of senators on campus while giving them the option to pursue activities and events they each have their own interests in.
Parliamentarian Jack Swartzinski motioned to also amend Resolution 105-03 in order to change the Speaker of the House, Taylor Lawrence’s billable hours from 10 to 12. The amendment passed 15-1 with Speaker Lawrence abstaining.
