2008 Woodie Awards
Constituency bill passed
Lindsey Davies / Staff Writer
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The University of West Florida Student Government Association met Oct. 14 to discuss a variety of campus issues, including the constituency bill and a new budget for soccer and volleyball cookouts.
The brief session came a week after passage of the constituency bill. Senate President Taylor Crawley said the bill's purpose is to create better communication between SGA and the student body.
"Better communication allows for the needs and concerns of the student body to be better addressed," Crawley said.
The new legislation created eight groups to represent a specific section of the student body. The groups include the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Professional Studies; the College of Business; graduate students; Greek affairs, athletics and recreation; student activities; registered student organizations and resident students.
These groups consist of one senator from each of the three SGA senate committees. These committee representatives are determined by voting within each of the committees.
This legislation requires that senators from these groups act as liaisons between SGA and the constituent group. The senators are responsible for authoring any bills or resolutions pertaining to the constituent group being represented and holding at least one meeting per month between the three senator representatives for each group.
They also are required to submit a written report updating issues concerning the constituent group to the senate president no later than the Wednesday before the last senate meeting of each month so that it can be posted publicly.
Supporters said the bill was established to ensure accurate, fair and reliable representation of the entire university student population.
"Every student will be represented by at least one of the groups, even if they are not in extracurricular activities," Crawley said. She added that the bill especially will make it easier for SGA to communicate with commuter students, which has been a challenge in the past.
Crawley said this bill was difficult to get passed for a variety of reasons. New SGA senators were not familiar with last year's extensive discussion of the bill, she said.
Crawley said the senators' main objection was the workload the legislation presented.
She said some senators were not sure if they could handle the extra responsibilities along with their current duties.
Crawley said the senators now understand that the new responsibilities are not as demanding as they had originally thought.
SGA president Tim Roberts announced a marketing campaign that has been started for the constituency groups. He said posters and contact information will be distributed to all of the major departments on campus.
Roberts also said a public relations release that describes what the groups are and how they work will be sent out to each of the department.
Another bill passed by SGA was the senate dress code and decorum bill. This bill requires all senators and ex-officio members to follow a dress code consisting of informal business attire, which includes khakis, dress pants, skirts of modest length and polo shirts. Flip-flops, tennis shoes, hats and visors of any kind are prohibited.
This bill also prohibits food during meetings. Drinks will be allowed unless otherwise banned by the senate president. Crawley said she thought this portion of the bill was necessary because food can be distracting and disruptive during meetings.
The third part of this bill requires that appropriate behavior be observed at all times.
In other business:
- During public discussion, student officials were notified that the "Argo Aid" Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund's goal of raising $9,000 has not yet been reached. They were told that as of Oct. 14, only $1,227 has been raised.
- A budget for the volleyball and soccer cookouts was voted on at the meeting. After little debate, a budget of $204.28 for the cookouts was approved.