Slippery Rock Student Government Association (SRSGA) held its first formal meeting of the fall semester Monday evening. The committee confirmed 13 member positions with the speaker position remaining vacant.
President Ella Bloom, a junior political science major, opened the officer and committee reports by expressing her excitement for the year ahead.
“I’m very excited to work with all of you. I think we’re going to have a really good year this year,” she said.
Fourteen motions were made while the senate reviewed new information. Notable motions included the confirmations of positions ranging from the level of Vice President to First-Year Senators.
Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs Election
Braydon Godfrey was confirmed as the Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs (SAA). Godfrey was formerly the Speaker of the Senate.
There were 3 candidates present in the SAA election.
Chris Thrasher removed himself from the SAA ballot as he will be graduating in the winter. Marissa Mclaughlin, a College of Education senator, sought community and a higher level of involvement in her address to the Senate.
Godfrey offered his experience as the speaker of the senate as well as his time on committees within SGA to quantify his qualifications. He also went on to outline his goals in the position.
“I would like to bring back the college head position that way there’s more accountability for planning, as well as different chairs for committees to make delegation easier–There is also a plan for parking that I would like to bring to administration,” he said. “My ‘why’ is students, it’s always been about student advocacy and that’s why I am here.”
As a result of Godfrey’s SAA confirmation, Thrasher motioned to fill the speaker seat in an impromptu election.
SRSGA advisors Patrick Beswick and Wendy Leitera mentioned during the presentation stage of the election that candidates must have attended at least one finance meeting prior to the election to be eligible.
According to Godfrey, two of the four applicants were not eligible at the time of the initial election.
Leitera suggested tabling the motion after a long discussion of proper procedure and a brief recess.
The Speaker seat is currently vacant.
Judiciary Branch Elections
Senators Eban Double, Hunter Bell, Elijah Calzada and Austin Burchell were confirmed as the jurors in the new judiciary branch.
Parliamentarian Ezek Warren explained the Judicial addition to the association during deliberations.
“We added a judiciary branch to the SRSGA, as such if there is any reported misconduct will go through that branch. We will perform an extensive investigation, collecting evidence, testimony, or otherwise, in order to properly investigate any misconduct that does not fall under internals,” he said. “We ask that you come to [juror position] prepared to be impartial and with a rigor for investigation.”
Five candidates ran for the Judiciary seats, and only four Jurors could be elected to the position. At first, there was a tie between Thrasher and Burchell, though Thrasher eventually announced that he would withdraw from the ballot.
Emma Williams, Analice Sivy-Isenberg, Owen Maharg, Connor Pavlicko, Emily Sennett, Elizabeth Buchan, Madi Hervatine and Alex Johnson were all confirmed as new Senators just before the meeting’s 6:32 p.m. adjournment.
