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The Student Government Association (SGA) Senate rejected two amendments to SGAs Constitution and celebrated its last regular season meeting Tuesday.

Attendees were rambunctious and sentimental with many exclaiming aw as Senate Speaker Daniel Gaffin struck the lectern with his gavel to commence the session for the final time.

Senior Senator Emily Butters proposed two amendments to SGAs Constitution, both of which were rejected by the senators. This is the first time an amendment has been rejected at SGA.

The first amendment proposed wouldve added a fifth clause in Article X, titled Amendments. The amendment proposed for any change to be made to the constitution, it must be approved by a majority vote by the student body.

Butters proposed this amendment to increase SGAs accountability to the student body and focus on the good of students when passing resolutions.

Junior SGA Representative Matt Haynicz disagreed with Butters, calling the reasoning behind the amendment confusing and said the student body would be making decisions on the Senates governing document.

If you were to ask most students at this school to say anything about student government, they probably wouldnt be able to tell you a lot, Haynicz said. It is confusing that they would be making decisions on the governing documents.

Junior Marcus Rand, SGAs sergeant-at-arms, agreed with Haynicz and said putting the constitution in the student bodys hands was a bad precedent to set. Rand also said this amendment poses the risk of giving the student body voters fatigue when theres already a low turnout for schoolwide elections.

Butters and senior Student Body President Shawdee Bakhtiari argued SGA should include the student body in its proceedings, but it wasnt enough to sway the Senates opinion.

Butters second amendment wouldve changed the current 14 academic college senator limit which was proposed by sophomore Academic Affairs Chair Zachary Fleming and approved by the SGA on Feb. 23 to 50 total across all seven academic colleges.

The amendment would also allow all academic college senators, graduate senators and class council members to participate in the election of the next Speaker to the SGA Senate.

Butters said the goal of the SGA is to represent, serve and inform, which she feels isnt being fulfilled by the low limitation number for academic college senators which could be counteracted by increasing the maximum number of academic college senators to 50.

Sophomore SGA Senator Lexi Alston, said the 14-senator limit in Flemings original amendment made the most sense because students in each academic college knew who their two representatives were and would feel comfortable approaching them.

Alston also added the 14 seat limitation increases competition in elections, which she compared to the real U.S. Senate, which has two Senators per state.

Fifty is an ideal number, but unfortunately right now there is not enough interest. That is the baseline of the issue, sophomore Representative Brielle Lacroix said. I think having two people per college is what we need for what the current student body is.

Bakhtiari, who supported the amendment, told the Senate theyll never be able to grow if they keep stopping themselves because of lack of a student body interest.

Butters called for a line-item vote to decide the amendments fate. This allowed the Senate to vote on specific parts of the amendment instead of all of it at once

Voting was divided into two parts, one for the 50-limit academic college senators and the other for allowing academic college senators, graduate senators and class council members to participate in the election of the Speaker to the SGA Senate.

Haynicz motioned for a roll-call vote to determine the approval of changing the senator limit. Twelve senators voted against the proposal, shooting it down. Eleven senators were in favor of the amendment and 11 senators abstained from voting. The proposal for participation in the election of the Speaker to the SGA Senate failed due to two-thirds of the Senate failing to approve.

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Amendment rejected for first time this year during last SGA Senate - The Breeze