The Student Government Association (SGA) immediately tabled constitutional changes regarding an external Board of Directors Monday night during the general senate meeting.
“What we’re trying to do is create an over arching umbrella Board of Directors above the SGA which would consist of students, professional staff and members of the other affiliated entities here on campus,” SGA President Buddy Clements said.
The changes would result in the Board of Co-Operative Activities being changed to the Financial Affairs Committee and in the President of SRSGA and the Vice President for Financial Affairs will be given voting rights on the external Board of Directors created under the changes. The board would consist of students, alumni, friends of the university, faculty and staff and would work with larger financial projects, though the specific responsibilities and powers have not yet been determined. Open forums for further discussion will be held Monday at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., both in Room 321 of the Robert M. Smith Student Center. All students with questions or comments regarding the proposed changes are encouraged to attend.
Clements said that specifically the SGA Bookstore and Daycare “don’t get the oversight they need from Student Government Association.” He felt that having a Board of Directors would be better for those kinds of things.
“[The Board of Directors will] help protect the liability of the organization and the students on it and long term projects,” Clements said. “The issue is that Student Government Association has grown as big as we can. Besides the bookstore and the daycare, we can’t create any new forms of revenue.” He said that other SGAs run their school’s residence halls. “We were offered that [in the past] but we couldn’t manage it.” Clements also cited California University’s SGA which owns a farm and collects funds from natural gas.
“Most SGA’s already have a Board above them,” he said. “We’re going to be working on how much power they do have and what their role is with SGA.” These are topics that will be discussed in the open forums next week.
Alex Merida was reinstated to senate after being removed for failure to complete required journals.
SGA voted to accept the 2014-15 AVI Vending Service Agreement Commission Guarantee for $60,000. This was down $5,000 from the previous guarantee; however there will be no price increases and SGA is negotiating for more card readers for the fall.
A motion encouraging students to register vote and participate in a nonpartisan voter registration drive in the fall was approved.
The senate also approved proclamations recognizing the 125th Anniversary of Slippery Rock University, Earth Day 2014, and care breaks. “I’m very thankful for this,” Dr. Pease-Hernandez, SRU Faculty Advisor, said. “I think SRU does a wonderful job with care breaks. If you haven’t gone on a care break, I would strongly suggest that you go.”
