With the exception of having to conduct the meeting in the cramped Skinner Conference Room in the JSAC, it was business as usual for SGA in their first senate meeting of the semester.
The most important part of the Jan. 15 agenda was the voting and swearing in of a new senate chair. Last semester, Nate Patterson held the position, but he has now transferred to the University of Georgia (UGA) to complete his undergraduate degree.
According to the SGA constitution, the senate chair is the recognized head of the senate and is responsible for maintaining and managing the legislative branch, which includes conducting senate meetings.
The two senate members nominated for the position were Logan Hinton, a finance major who held the position of parliamentarian for the Fall 2008 semester, and Kyle Hodge, a freshman political science major and up-and-coming senator.
Hinton won the vote, which was conducted via secret ballot, and began his term as senate chair at the Jan. 23 meeting.
Hodge, who lost to Hinton for senate chair, will take over for Hinton as parliamentarian for the Spring 2009 semester.
“As parliamentarian this semester, what we’re going to try to do as a senate overall is to build legitimacy amongst the student body,” Hodge said. “So, people, when they think of SGA, they see it as just, you know, a group of students that don’t really have that much say-so, but the truth is (that) the (student body) actually (has) a voice here on campus. So, this semester we’re going to try to convey to (students) that we actually get stuff accomplished in (SGA).”
Hodge said, as parliamentarian, he is willing to work with both the legislative and executive branch of SGA.
“Personally, I just want to bring commitment to the parliamentarian position,” he said. “I mean, I’m dedicated to working with all the senators, the (executive branch), pretty much everybody who is interested in getting stuff accomplished.”
This wasn’t the only important business discussed at the meeting. Andre Goodman, a senior political science major and president of SGA, said during his weekly report that a lot of student government presidents around Georgia were upset at how the state handled issuing the one-time fee of $75 for students this semester.
Goodman said that after the fee was announced, the student government programs at both UGA and Georgia Tech issued letters to the state.
Goodman and SGA Vice President Najhee Jackson, a political science major, were scheduled for a trip to the Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Friday, Jan. 23 to discuss the matter with student government representatives from around the state.
Then it came time to welcome the new senators for this semester. SGA Secretary Brett Parker, a political science major and the sole remaining member of the Committee on Committees, said to the other members of the senate that upon interviewing the four new candidates, he recommends every applicant.
The new senators were sworn in at the meeting. They are Curtis Fease, a junior psychology and criminal justice double major; Barinaada Kara, a freshman chemistry and psychology double major; Aleesha Mincey, a freshman biology major; and Richard Smith, a freshman political science major.
Fease has lofty goals for his term as one of SGA’s senators. He said he wants to make sure that the students are being heard when it comes to important legislation.
“I decided to become a senator to help out the student body and make sure that (the student’s) voice is heard during any type of meetings or anything that is going to affect them in the long run and to make sure they have a say in it and they aren’t being taken advantage of,” Fease said.