Senate met on April 1st to allow for Senate committee reports, to confirm several appointments made by SGA and other organizations on campus, as well as give senators a look at bills that will be coming into Senate in the next week.
During committee reports each chairperson gave a brief overview of what their committees are currently accomplishing. Most committee reports consisted of when and where each committee meets to ensure that everyone was informed of these open meetings. However, during the Facilities and Safety committee report, Senator at Large, Logan Powell brought to Senate's attention the strides his committee is making for campus safety:
"We are currently working on a resolution to improve the lighting near the extension parking lot as well as working on a student survey for safety walking to and from the Village."
Senate had several new appointments to confirm tonight. First up for confirmation were the students serving on Organizations Board.
"Organizations Board is a panel of 7 appointed students responsible for approving or denying organization status changes and requests for organizations fund money," said Kyla Wilkinson, a student on the O-Board panel. The new O-Board members are Alicia Valenti, Zachary St. Clair, John LeMaster, Cody Sanders, Kyla Wilkinson, Anne Strickland and Wilson Yielding. Each member was confirmed.
Next senate confirmed two new senators to represent their respected colleges. Oclla Parks will represent the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and Christopher Faron will serve as the senator for the College of Veterinary Medicine, both Parks and Faron have served in senate previously.
Finally senate approved the new Assistant Vice Presidents for SGA Cabinet. There were twelve new students appointed to these positions and each was confirmed with no discussion from senate. Senator Jacob Dean, from the college of Liberal Arts, did warn senate to be wary of spreading themselves thin due to the fact that some senators were just confirmed as AVP's. Dean talked briefly about senators being able to perform both jobs effectively and how they were potentially taking positions away from other students who would like to and are qualified to serve SGA.
Coming up next week are several amendments to the Code of Laws to include the new structure for senate committees. Senator at Large, Jackson Pruett presented the new Legislative Affairs committee:
"As part of this year's committee restructure we will be creating a new legislative affairs committee. The goal of this committee is to serve as a voice of the student body to Montgomery and Washington on issues that involve students."
Before senate closed, advisor Brad Smith encouraged the students that he had seen several students he had not met before in SGA Cabinet interviews earlier in the day.
"To me that was really exciting and should be exciting to you guys as well that we will potentially be seeing some new faces in the office," said Smith.
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