The Associated Students held a long-lasting senate meeting last Friday in which a variety of topics were covered, including a possible adjustment to the residential life quite hours and some revisions of the SSU election code.
The revisions came early on the agenda and many articles were discussed. Our election code was created to insure a fair election race for every student interested in running for a position in AS. One of the amendments that was brought up during the discussion involved the qualifications for a student running for AS and what rules can prevent them from being able to run. The senate openly shared ideas on what each of them thought was fair.
Many items were gone over in this code revision including campaign budgets and slates; every detail regarding our student-run elections was covered.
Associated Students President Mac Hart said, “Everyone reads the code to their advantage.”
“Our student government is unique in that our community affairs senator, Libby Dippel, was once the elections commissioner,” said Hart. Although this may seem like a conflict of interest, Hart explained that she was appointed after the elections commissioner seat was vacant. Because Dippel was responsible for revising this election code, she was able to quickly point out all of the flaws she thought needed changing.
Next on the agenda was a discussion about the recognition of the students and staff that helped in the production of Big Nite. A task force was formed to make sure those individuals get the resolution that was written to thank them. Later the agenda called for a discussion about the recognition and funding for SSU’s educational opportunity program. This program was developed to help low-income students afford higher education. According to Senator Mallory Rice, last year 11,000 students were eligible for SSU’s EOP program but only 100 were accepted due to numerous reasons, including insufficient funds for the program. Because of this information, the senate developed another task force to find out how more funds can be raised.
The last topic that was discussed was the adjustment of resident hall quiet hours. A few of the senators brought this idea to the table a few weeks back but it was discussed again on Friday after a little more research and interviewing was conducted. The proposal was to diminish quiet hours totally on Fridays and Saturdays. Senator Annie Green reasoned that this new policy could help create a closer community between residents of our on-campus communities.
This new bond that could be created would mimic the relationship that SSU students and their neighbors share in off-campus neighborhoods. In these off-campus neighborhoods, residents can get a 120-day sanction if their neighbors think they are being loud, no matter what time of day. That is why the people living in these communities try to develop friendly and open relationships. This new proposal is intended to help the residents of SSU develop the same relationships as their bordering off-campus communities.
This idea will not be agreed upon until more representation from the CSA’s and residents of SSU has been given. Hart made sure the rest of the senate took into consideration the amount of people this proposal will be affecting and that all of them deserve a voice in this decision.
