The following covers the meeting on Feb. 21.
CLIMATE CHECK
Junior senator Leopoldo Perez updated SGA members on a response he received from Facilities Services after reaching out about parking. Recently, SGA members have received multiple complaints about the lack of parking near the residence halls. Perez reached out to Gary Logan, vice president for Finance and Administration, who referred him to director of Facilities Services Jim Baker.
Baker said Facilities Services is still working on the pipes in multiple parking lots around campus but assured Perez that spaces will be opening up soon.
On the same note, sophomore senator Oliver Chapin-Eiserloh reached out to Eric Maloof, vice president for Enrollment Management, who is in charge of the distribution of parking passes and parking violations. Maloof referred Chapin-Eiserloh to chief of police Paul Chapa, who has not responded to him at the time of publication. Chapin-Eiserloh expressed that many students are upset with the current parking situation and that he feels the university is not doing enough to address students’ agitation.
Senator Perez will keep SGA up-to-date with any new information he receives from Baker. First-year senator Jack Williams added that he reached out to TUPD last week and has arranged for assistant chief Pete Perez to come to the SGA meeting in two weeks.
Sophomore senator Noor Rahman said a student who lives in Prassel Residence Hall emailed her saying there have been multiple nights recently that the football stadium lights have remained on until the morning. According to Rahman, the student bought black-out curtains, but they do not block the lights. Rahman asked who she should reach out to on behalf of the student.
First-year senator Nicholas Janedis said he has seen TUPD officers turning the lights off before and suggested Rahman reach out to them.
First-year senator Sarah Pita said multiple students have approached her concerned about a POD employee’s well-being, saying the employee was seen crying and upset about their pay and long work hours. Adviser David Tuttle explained that this situation is tricky, partially because the information is secondhand but also because sharing this information without the employee’s consent may put the employee in a weird position with their supervisor. Tuttle suggested Pita raise the concern to Charles Robles, director of Aramark, who he says will most likely be very responsive to the concern.
Junior senator Julia Hyun said she ate at the Panda Express at Revolve on Tuesday and that her chicken was pink. Hyun also said other students complained of pink and rubbery chicken. Adviser Tuttle suggested she reach out directly to a manager in the future for more immediate and specific feedback.
CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
Last semester, the election schedule for all organizations changed, including SGA. Because of this, SGA needed to amend their constitution in accordance with the new timeline.
The change was to Article 9, Section 2 of the Constitution. Senators Perez and Chapin-Eiserloh presented the proposed amendments, which included changing the election date to the spring for rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. The election day for first-years would remain in the fall to ensure first-year representation on the Senate.
This change means that seniors will now be on the Senate for two full semesters, as opposed to the one semester they serve now. It removes the position of senator emeritus and gives senior senators the ability to vote.
According to SGA’s constitution, any major amendments must be put to vote by the student body. However, the Senate found this change to be merely cosmetic, though it changes the voting ability of the senior class. As a cosmetic change, only the Senate is required to vote, and the vote does not extend to the student body.
Also according to the constitution, SGA must present amendment proposals a week before voting on them. This meeting was the first at which the proposals were discussed.
The Senate voted to approve the amendments.
