By Farris Willingham, Staff Writer
Three time was a charm for senators on Tuesday, March 1. Student Senate voted to appoint three new senators and had three bills on the floor during their weekly meeting.
Sens. Anthony England (junior at-large), Amy Scheenstra (nursing), and Tevyn Hill (music) were approved by the Senate. The new senators were not sworn in because no judge was present.
SB 043 failed by a vote of 5 to 8. It requested that $1,157 be allotted to provide the theater school with a Dell Optiplex 780 computer with dual monitors. Sen. Ciera Terry (theater) authored the bill.
Theater officials wanted to use funding to purchase the new computer through the university technical support office. Terry said the school does not have a computer with the appropriate programs for their design and production work.
The bill went up for debate during the meeting.
Sens. Terry and David Scott (business) debated the affirmative, while Sens. Sarah Cook (Greek/president pro-tempore), Sheray Franklin (dance/arts management), and Caleb Howard (freshman at-large) took the opposition.
The theater school already has been allotted money to purchase two computers, but they haven’t bought any yet, Terry said.
“We are waiting to see how much SGA will allot us for before we purchase anything,” she said.
Theater design and production students design for about 51 shows a year, Terry said.
“It would make the theater production and design student’s lives much easier if we had another computer,” she said.
Franklin suggested the theater school use the money that already has been allotted to them.
“They should purchase the two computers that have already been funded for, and then show how that works out,” she said.
After a debate, a two-thirds vote is required for a bill to pass.
The bill failed by a vote of 8 to 7. The total bill then went up for a vote, which failed by a 5 to 8 vote.
SB 044 proposed amending Article 6; Section 2; Part D of the Student Government Association Bylaws. It requested that the allotment application deadline be dealt with by the secretary of finance and the allotment committee chairperson and that a database for all future allotments be created. Chris Macella (math and science) and Edwards Ayo-Odugbesan (international) authored the bill.
The bill passed with a unanimous vote.
Interfraternal Council received $770 for a softball event in SB 046. Sens. Justin Blumer (law) and Katie Alsup (sophomore at-large) authored the bill.
Alsup said she spoke with the council.
“The committee has been looking everywhere for funding,” she said. “Any help that we could give them would be appreciated.”
The bill passed by a vote of 12 to 1.
There is about $2,400 left in rolling appropriations.
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