Very brief synopsis of bills for Wednesday.
First Year Grade Exclusion Bill- Ask the University to do away with first year grade exclusion and add one Q-drop. Also move back the Q-drop date a little bit. My favorite bill of the year so far. Chair Jennings has done an incredible job with this one.
Modification of Faculty Rules Bill- Makes professors act professionally in the classroom and require them to adhere to University rules.
Budget By-Law Bill- Internal housekeeping that no one outside of the governance room will really appreciate but incredible work by Joshua Sandoval.
Neighborhood Mediation and University Involvement Bill- Supports the Neighborhood Mediation and University Involvement initiatives being worked on.
Attendance Bill- Internal housekeeping, there are a few minor wording faults in the By-Laws as far as attendance.
Alternative Revenue Committee Bill- Good idea, needs much more work. I do not see it working in its current form. There is probably a better yet similar solution.
Committee Voting Bill- If passed, this will require all bills to get the go ahead from committees before they can be heard a second time in front of the Senate. This is how real Senate works, it is a good idea and very fair. This will only require half the people there to vote in favor of a bill being heard again. It will also streamline meetings because if the committee does not feel a bill is ready for a second reading then the Senate will not waste it's time on the bill. This also allows for a second consideration at a later committee meeting. Good bill and very well thought out.
Cain Hall Parking Bill- Give three one hour parking spots behind Cain hall. This is good for Aggies that use Disability Services and Student Counseling services.
Student Input Amendment- Require one half of one percent of the Student Body to be surveyed or otherwise have opinion taken before any fee legislation can pass. This is good on many different levels. Allows for more student input and puts more accountability on the SGA.
Student Learning Center Fee Resolution- Should have been written in a bill form so I will not even go into it until it is changed.
That is all, come out and hear what the Senate is doing.
Most of these are my opinion, it does not represent the opinion of the Student Senate.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Rules & Regs Meeting Keynotes
Few things talked about in R&R meeting today you may find interesting.
1. Extended campaigning two weeks before spring break. Don't get too upset about this, basically it is "soft campaigning" and only the candidate would be allowed to go out and campaign. The benefits of this in my opinion are huge. It will force candidates to talk about actual issues. It seems we only have one SBP candidate a year actually talk about real issues. For the last four years they have been Jake Bathman, Will Hailey, Scott Smith, and Mark McCaig respectively. This will also give lesser known and smaller budget candidates to have a shot instead of the most popular and most funded candidates. Also, allowing early campaigning will allow candidates to talk longer with different student groups instead of forcing them to cut their talks down to two or three minutes. I will go more into the election regulations in more detail once I get a more final draft back from Jake. The election people are being great about talking with the R&R meeting and I would like to extend my thanks to Jake for this.
2. Facebook will be allowed in campaigning with almost no restrictions. This is a huge step in the right direction of SGA getting out of the students' business and worrying about real issues. This and the Senate Ticket regulations last year were blatant violations of the SGA constitution and even worse violations of the basic concepts of representative democracy. The Ticket regulation was ruled by the J-Court under Chris Cook to be unconstitutional and I am confident that the Facebook regulation would be ruled to be the same.
3. There will not be any University Apartment Senate Seats this time around. Conner talked about getting Senate Seats for the University Apartments seeing as they are now represented by off campus but are still under the regulation of RHA. This is a good idea but the R&R Comm cannot find a good way of putting this in. We would have to give two seats for University Apartments (650 students) and actually grant what would become almost over-representation. The best way to address the issue that we came up with was to move the University Apartments from off campus to north side. This evens out residency between north and south side and provides better representation. One idea that was brought up in the R&R meeting was to create a "Special Residency Caucus" to allow for one seat to be University Apartments and another to be in house Greek residency. The R&R people did not go for this and so it will not be in the final draft of the bill.
These are my general observations, many of these are just in talks right now but seem pretty solid on what is going to be happening.
1. Extended campaigning two weeks before spring break. Don't get too upset about this, basically it is "soft campaigning" and only the candidate would be allowed to go out and campaign. The benefits of this in my opinion are huge. It will force candidates to talk about actual issues. It seems we only have one SBP candidate a year actually talk about real issues. For the last four years they have been Jake Bathman, Will Hailey, Scott Smith, and Mark McCaig respectively. This will also give lesser known and smaller budget candidates to have a shot instead of the most popular and most funded candidates. Also, allowing early campaigning will allow candidates to talk longer with different student groups instead of forcing them to cut their talks down to two or three minutes. I will go more into the election regulations in more detail once I get a more final draft back from Jake. The election people are being great about talking with the R&R meeting and I would like to extend my thanks to Jake for this.
2. Facebook will be allowed in campaigning with almost no restrictions. This is a huge step in the right direction of SGA getting out of the students' business and worrying about real issues. This and the Senate Ticket regulations last year were blatant violations of the SGA constitution and even worse violations of the basic concepts of representative democracy. The Ticket regulation was ruled by the J-Court under Chris Cook to be unconstitutional and I am confident that the Facebook regulation would be ruled to be the same.
3. There will not be any University Apartment Senate Seats this time around. Conner talked about getting Senate Seats for the University Apartments seeing as they are now represented by off campus but are still under the regulation of RHA. This is a good idea but the R&R Comm cannot find a good way of putting this in. We would have to give two seats for University Apartments (650 students) and actually grant what would become almost over-representation. The best way to address the issue that we came up with was to move the University Apartments from off campus to north side. This evens out residency between north and south side and provides better representation. One idea that was brought up in the R&R meeting was to create a "Special Residency Caucus" to allow for one seat to be University Apartments and another to be in house Greek residency. The R&R people did not go for this and so it will not be in the final draft of the bill.
These are my general observations, many of these are just in talks right now but seem pretty solid on what is going to be happening.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Senators!
Howdy Senators,
Email me and let me know if you would like publishing permissions for this Blog. Also, if you are a student and have a pretty solid reason in which you would like to post on here periodically let me know and we can set you up with permission also.
Colt Jim '08
Email me and let me know if you would like publishing permissions for this Blog. Also, if you are a student and have a pretty solid reason in which you would like to post on here periodically let me know and we can set you up with permission also.
Colt Jim '08
Howdy
Howdy Ags,
I am starting this Blog in hopes of creating a more open and inviting communication between Student Senators and Students here at Texas A&M. I will periodically be posting things that I feel strongly about and would love to look back and see what students think about important issues.
I am still new to the Blog business but I think I will figure it out soon enough. Look for an update this weekend on a few things that the Student Senate is working on.
Colt Jim '08
Off Campus Senate
I am starting this Blog in hopes of creating a more open and inviting communication between Student Senators and Students here at Texas A&M. I will periodically be posting things that I feel strongly about and would love to look back and see what students think about important issues.
I am still new to the Blog business but I think I will figure it out soon enough. Look for an update this weekend on a few things that the Student Senate is working on.
Colt Jim '08
Off Campus Senate
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