SAMANTHA BLONS
News Assistant
SGA passed three resolutions last night but held one back for further review. The held resolution would have supported the substitution of the Junior Writing Profile with a required senior thesis or project for every Seaver College major. The senate voted to table the resolution until next week’s meeting so that its author senior senator Max Podlone and the other senior senators can revise their orginal draft.
SGA members debated heavily over whether eliminating the Junior Writing Profile was relevant to establishing a required undergraduate senior thesis or project.
Ryan Harvey, vice president of administration, said replacing the Junior Writing Profile with a senior thesis would be more beneficial to students and school prestige, while balancing student workload.
However, other SGA members countered that a senior thesis or project is a separate issue from the current general education requirement, because it demands far more time and energy in the final undergraduate year.
The senior senators will amend this resolution and return it to the floor next week. If the resolution passes, SGA will support that position officially and petition administrators and faculty to further pursue the issue.
The senate also passed an amendment to its constitution, requiring that future SGA presidents and executive vice presidents have prior experience as members of SGA. However, this amendment will not go into affect unless it is passed by a majority of student body voters in next week’s special election. This mid-year election is used to fill vacant positions in the senate, to allow the student body to vote on senators who have been appointed due to previous vacancies and to ratify amendments to the SGA constitution. There are currently two vacant SGA positions, for outer dorm row senators, and three appointed senators that are required to run for office next week.
SGA also voted to organize a “Senior Last Chance Dance” for the upcoming senior semester, as well as to pursue negotiations with administrators and the Department of Public Safety to open the Smothers Theatre parking lot overnight on weekdays from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. and on weekends 24 hours a day, with the exception of special events.
SGA members later passed a resolution to contribute $700 to the upcoming Latino Student Association fifth Annual Salsa Night, a philanthropic event benefiting Brothers for Charity, a non-profit organization that aids impoverished and homeless men in Los Angeles.
Along with the meeting’s four resolutions, the evening’s agenda addressed several potential modifications to the SGA voting procedures. The senate passed a change in SGA bylaws requiring a debate between student body presidential candidates in the spring semester.
The two amendments that failed in the senate last night would have eliminated next week’s type of upcoming special election, by removing the student body’s power to ratify constitutional amendments and to challenge the senators appointed due to vacancies.
The author of both amendments, junior senator Andy Canales, said he stands by his position against special elections.
“Especially in the case that all positions got filled [in the September election] and there were constitutional amendments, I don’t think it’s beneficial to have a special election just to vote n those amendments,” he said.
Canales said he opposes the special elections because he believes that holding too many elections undermines the importance of the SGA election process.
“What I should have done is to revise the resolution so that constitutional amendments could only be voted on in major elections,” he added.
11-02-2006