The Student Government Association held a Senate and Government Affairs Committee meeting yesterday afternoon in the Lakefront Room of the Smith-Brown Memorial Student Union.
First on the agenda was the appointment of treasurer and activities chair for SGA president Jamal Taylor’s cabinet.
Marketing major from Manteca, Calif., Elyse McFadden, who has also served as activities coordinator for the last three years was nominated by Taylor to be his activities chair.
Freshmen mass communications and accounting major from Houston, Evan Taylor was nominated to be Taylor’s treasurer from which he said she would “bring a freshness to SGA.”
Taylor, who recounts her experience as a member of Southern University’s Dynasty student organization and fund raiser head of Southern’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists when asked what qualified her for the cabinet position.
“To be able to help SGA and student body as well as maintain the budget is the reason why,” Taylor response to the committees question of why she wanted the position.
Taylor’s cabinet will be decided on during a later date.
Afterward, fresh from his win as freshmen president, Marlin Holens, a business management major from Jackson, appointed his justices, which includes business management major from Baton Rouge Jeffrey Broocks.
Takisha Cowart, a New Orleans native who lost to Holens for the title, will serve as freshmen senator.
Later, the “Lynn Dickerson Measure” and Acts I and II of the “For the People” bills were all unanimously passed to face a Senate vote on Thursday night.
The “Lynn Dickerson” measure, named after the former Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs would amend Article XIII Sections I and II which states that only way the constitution can be amended is by two ways: the unanimous vote of the full membership of the student senate and approval of the university administration or two-thirds of the voting student body in a given election and approval of the administration.
If approved on Thursday, the bill will change the approval of amending the constitution on the administration side to just the vice-chancellor of Student of Affairs, who is currently Julie Wessinger.
According to Phillip Wallace, president pro-tempore of the student senate and one of the authors for the bill, the reason for the bill was to make the senate more efficient when wanting the constitution to be amended by focusing on one administrator.
“We shouldn’t have to go to the chancellor or other administrators to get bills amended,” said Wallace.
“He’s delegated the vice-chancellor of student affairs to be over SGA.”
The Acts I and II of the “For the People” bills, according to junior senator Elyssa Lassiter who also helped author the bills, said that the motivation for legislation was to make students communication with SGA easier.
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