SGA Senate passed the “First 56” Initiative Monday, April 23. Hannah Locklear was appointed as the third College of Education Senator and SGA Cabinet was also confirmed.
Sen. Max Zinner questioned the real purpose behind the bill. He asked his fellow senators to give him more information about if the bill is actually needed. He also wanted to know how undergraduate senators thought the bill would impact the first-year experience.
Sen. Jordan Bailey, College of Engineering, Sen. David Calhoun, College of Business, Sen. Annie Ozment, College of Science and Mathematics, Sen. Ashlyn Payne, at-large, Sen. Jackie Litschewski, College of Business, and Sen. Sully Jeter, at-large, all spoke in favor of the bill. Noting that the bill will help first-year students create good habits that will last throughout their college years.
After several minutes of debate, the “First 56” Initiative passed unanimously.
The “First 56” is a resolution to help freshman start their college career with good habits and behaviors. The “First 56” refers to the first six weeks of a student’s first semester where a new college student is at an increased risk for risky behaviors including drinking, substance abuse and hazing, the resolution reads.
"I'm excited for just the unknown," Jeter said. "We don't have anything just written out on paper right now, like big game plans."
The Senate also approved a change Chapter 808, the finance law of the Code of Laws. This chapter of the Code of Laws is about the executive stipend review board, a board that determines the stipend amount each executive member of Student Activity Portfolios, SAPs, receives.
A Student Media student representative, an Office of Student Involvement assistant director, as Student Media advisor and the director of the Office of Student Involvement were all added as members of the board. The SGA advisor and a faculty advisor for an SAP other than SGA were both removed from the board.
The bill also changed the review process. The old Code of Laws dictated the SGA president or Senate as the ones that could initiate a review of any executive position in an SAP.
Now, all executive positions from SAPs that would like to be reviewed to possibly receive a stipend, must submit their position and responsibilities to the review board. This can be done twice per calendar year. Before it could be done once per year at the beginning of a fiscal year.
The review board will now use a rubric to grade the executive positions and their associated responsibilities and determine their score. The score is then compared to a tier system to find which tier, and therefore which stipend amount, the executive in that position receives.
Before this change, this review system did not exist. The review board would just make a recommendation to the Senate on the stipend amount based on what they thought the responsibilities were for each executive position in all SAPs.
Students can now expect that all executive positions in SAPs that receive a stipend have been reviewed. If they have not been or a position has been added that has not been reviewed, students can submit the positions and a description of it on AUinvolve.
During Sen. Avi Vaidya's Academic Affairs Committee report, he allowed Sen. Mary Margaret Turton, College of Business, to take the floor.
Turton attended an Academic Affairs Committee meeting to speak to the committee about the recent editorial about student internships published in the Plainsman.
Several students have come to Turton and Vaidya with concerns over the University's internship policies. She spoke about the fact that there are many majors that require internships in order to graduate. Students currently have to pay for regular tuition while they complete their internship in order to receive the required credit to graduate.
"Since your not studying on campus, what the students were bringing to us was, there should be a standard cost," Turton said. "This is an issue with students, and so I just wanted to share what they had brought to us and we are going to be working with Academic Services, student fees and all that."
Sen. Savannah McKenzie, College of Nursing, was appointed as the Chaplain Monday, April 16, 2018. She was appointed after Zinner and the Code of Laws Committee discovered the chaplain position existed in the Senate and worked with Vice President Burney to fill it.
In her first speech as Chaplain, McKenzie reminded senators about what the purpose of her role as chaplain is. She is not to serve as a religious figure but as someone to put out messages about leadership and how to live a healthy life.
She also encouraged everyone present at Senate to study hard for their finals. But she wanted to remind everyone that grades “do not define who you are” and to “not beat yourself up over a grade.”
"Instead of it being the more traditional Chaplain role people think of, she's more of the facilitator of an invocation," Burney said. "And we're hoping those invocations are leadership encouraging."
At the close of the meeting, Senate Parliamentarian Matt Molock announced that he will be transferring from Auburn and will not be present at the weekly Senate meetings in the fall.
"We are going to miss Matt, I think more than he can even realize," Burney said. "For me, he has been a great source of knowledge and assistance in this process."
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