
The SGA senators pose for a photo following their bi-weekly meeting in their new SGA quarter-zips that they received during their first November meeting. During the meeting, a resolution was read and checked for grammar and another one was passed.
In their first meeting of November, the Student Government Association (SGA) voted on a new resolution, introduced a new resolution and mentioned a compromise for a recently failed resolution.
Senator Johnny Toma, a senior finance and accounting major from Hot Springs, Arkansas, was the primary sponsor for the newest resolution presented by SGA.
The resolution would reduce the University Housing laundry removal waiting period from 30 to 10 minutes.
“A lot of people leave their clothes in for half an hour and it’s unacceptable,” Toma said. “But if we put it at 10 minutes, then people will be way more incentivized to go out and get their laundry and not let it just sit there and hog up the dryers and the washers.”
Currently if someone leaves their laundry in the machines after it’s been done for 30 minutes, other students are allowed to remove the laundry and start their load. This would just reduce that wait time to 10 minutes.
Toma was also one of the senators who worked on the previously failed resolution titled “Resolution to Establish Executive Officer and Committee Activity Reporting and Documentation.”
The proposed resolution specifically said in its report document that it was drafted to maintain “a consistent record of Executive Cabinet activities would provide the SGA and the student body with a clear understanding of the initiatives, meetings, projects, administrative duties, and other official work being conducted by Executive Officers and Committee members; and regular documentation of Executive Officers and Committee activities would promote institutional accountability, transparency, continuity between administrations, and a more effective transition of responsibilities between elected officers.”
The sponsor of the resolution, Senior Senator Parker Hicks, an accounting and finance double major from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, said that a compromise had been made to fix the original resolution and update it so it can be read again at a later meeting.
“The executive board committee has been very clear that they want to meet in the middle on this, and I’m a person who wants to meet in the middle. That’s where this whole resolution was born out of, because there was a lot of strife,” Hicks said. “Differences between senators on the budget that was passed and that this executive board got a raise, and some senators didn’t agree with that.”
Hicks said that a little progress is better than no progress and that’s what he’s striving for with this compromise and this resolution.
“I wanted to meet in the middle, and we have some accountability here with the increased raise,” Hicks said. “That’s what this resolution was born out of. So I’m willing to compromise again, just so we can make some movement and progress.”
What progress is being made and passed within SGA at the moment, however, is the passing of the extended hours for the library to 1 a.m. from its current closing at 12 a.m. on weeknights. Public Relations Director Camille Turney, a junior biological sciences major from Jonesboro was the leading force when it came to the resolution.
After Turney read the resolution, she contributed a preface before the conversation started.
“I already talked to the library and this is kind of already done,” Turney said.
She then added that it would just be to get SGA’s name on the decision. The resolution passed unanimously.
During the executive board’s opening reports, different members of the staff teased different events they’re planning on hosting: Mental Health Reset on Dec. 2 and SGA Express in the Red Wolf Center after Late Night Breakfast on Dec. 3.
A vote of acclamation then filled the three open seats. The new senators include Morgan Donald, a biology major; Alexis Paton, a radiologic science major; and Houston Boling, a business administration major with an emphasis in pre-law.
The reduced laundry wait time resolution will be voted on at the next meeting. Hicks said the compromised and edited version of the executive cabinet activities resolution will be reviewed and established next spring at the latest.
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