The Senate meeting of the Student Government Association on Monday, Sept. 23 was brief, but made important decisions for the future of SGA and organizations around campus.
The most important decision of the night came after an arduous discussion of whether to strike Section 300.2 from the SGA Code of Laws, eliminating the Freshman Senate Council from the greater body of SGA.
The motion to eliminate the Freshman Senate council from the SGA body failed by a vote of 22 to 10 after a strong show of support both by former Freshman senate representatives and those who joined as upperclassmen.
"I think that everyone understands that this program needs to stay for obvious reasons, you need people to bridge that gap between freshmen and sophomores," said College of Business Senator Peyton Bristow. "You don't want them to dive in head first when you don't have a lot of experience in that. I guess what Im trying to say is that we can't just create one year where we don't have these people," Bristow said.
In the past the lack of open seats in the SGA senate has occasionly deterred or prevented underclassmen senator candidates from progressing through the ranks into the primary SGA council, prompting many to speculate that there is a lack of commitment from the freshman senators.
For now, the Freshman Senate Council will remain, though all were in agreement that there is a clear and definite need both to continue the council as well as reform it to better function in the SGA body.
Organizations that hold reserved sections in the block seating area came under fire for leaving home football games early while students unable to find seats were relegated to walkways, leaving their reserved seats unused but inaccessible to most football fans.
Options like integrating the block seating area or eliminating the option to reserve block seating altogether were voiced, but a decision has yet to be reached.
The other notable development from the meeting was the motion to restructure funding applications for on-campus organizations, a decision whose repercussions will not be fully appreciated until further in the semester.
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