Student Government Association checks bill progress, introduces new motions

The Student Government Association began their penultimate formal meeting with a moment of silence in remembrance of Veterans Day and the Paris attacks.

The rest of the meeting covered new business and checking in on the progress of senator’s bills.

Big Event director Anna Lopez introduced S.B 3: “The Big Event has a BIG request” along with Senator Ruby Leon.

The bill requested $1,400 from SGA to help pay for Cabo Bob’s vouchers that are given to volunteers each year. Last year SGA allocated $1,200 for vouchers, which covers 300 individuals. Big Event is expecting even more volunteers in 2016.

Next, Sen. Gregory Reck introduced a motion to overturn an executive board decision on accountability codes.

The motion came after Parliamentarian Faith Castillo acknowledged in a previous meeting that the executive board had voted not to be subjected to the same performance evaluations as the senators, and instead they sent out a survey for feedback from members of SGA.

“The intent was not to evade the performance review but it was to have a different style of performance review,” SGA Vice President Jonathan Edwards said.

Reck points to Section 3 of the Accountability Code of “Success Metrics” in which it states that each member should be subjected to performance evaluations.

“I found that it was a little unfair that us senators were given performance evaluations and the executive board did not have to have performance evaluations because the accountability codes clearly states, each member of the association’,” Reck said.

The evaluations will be created by Castillo, according to the motion. The parliamentarian’s review will be given by Edwards.

Although there were concerns raised by SGA CFO Carlos Martinez about how the performance evaluations would affect the parliamentarian position, the senators passed the motion unanimously.

The motion mandates each member of the executive board to be given a performance evaluation to be completed by Dec. 10, similar to the one that each senator had to take at the end of October.

In another resolution, Sen. Jamie Cardenas introduced S.R. 14: “Vegan Friendly” because she says vegetarian and vegan students are limited by Bon Appetit.

The resolution passed which will now enable her to begin conversations with General Manager of Bon Appetit Michael Smith about more vegan options on campus.

Sen. Ben Griffith and Cardenas also discussed a resolution to put a chair, or a “hot seat,” in different parts of campus to help SGA members to me more available and reach out the student population.

The resolution passed and the “hot seat” will start to be implemented in Spring 2016.

For the final resolution of the night, Sen. Dominick Namis and Chief Justice Hiralys Alvarez introduced a resolution and an appropriations bill to give 12 turkeys to help campus ministry feed 50 families for Thanksgiving.

The final SGA formal meeting of Fall 2015 will be held on Dec. 3 in Fleck 305.