STUDENT GOVERNMENT-MMC: Senate must learn time management, prioritization

By: Alex Sorondo

The frivolity of the Oct. 21 University-wide meeting, followed by the messiness of the Oct. 24 Student Government Council at Modesto Maidique Campus  meeting, has made it clear that the root of the Student Government Association’s troubles has to do with procedural uncertainty – a fear of doing something wrong that is so crippling that the council ends up doing nearly nothing at all.

Alex Sorondo / Columnist

The first of the two bills discussed during Monday’s SGC-MMC  meeting was Senate Resolution 1109, initiating a pilot project for Connor Mautner’s, SGC-MMC President Patrick O’Keefe’s executive assistant, $40 million solar garden initiative.

The pilot project will set up a solar garden on the roof of MMC’s Graham Center and at Biscayne Bay Campus’ Wolfe University Center.

Apart from some of the senators forgetting their initial enthusiasm for the project when it was proposed during last week’s meeting, the Senate’s decision was delayed by a 20-minute endeavor to correct the bill’s grammatical errors and linguistic shortcomings, a job generally reserved for the Rules, Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

An insightful suggestion to refer the bill back to the Rules Committee for editing and partial rewriting sparked such dissent that it was called to a vote. On the matter of whether to continue correcting the errors during the meeting, or to send the bill back to be the committee appointed to do such things, the Senate voted to devote their meeting time to nitpicking over the bill’s poor prose.

So, on they went, passing motions to erase a comma, change a word, move a period. Finally, at the 20-minute mark, Comptroller Cristina Loreto spoke up from the back row to reprimand the Senate for “wasting their meeting.” The sight of the Senate, so devoted to the recursive and increasingly contentious effort of re-writing a bill almost word-by-word offers some insight into the Senate’s issues with prioritization and organization.

After the scolding, another motion to forego editing and refer the bill back to the Rules Committee was promptly passed, unchallenged, and was followed by a cluster of senators’ hands rising all around the room, stiff with indignation, who indulged in almost 10 minutes of blaming others for the flaws they couldn’t see in themselves. Speaker of the Senate Donovan Dawson, the first one to catch the irony, was merciful enough to leave a few arms unanswered and attempted to move the meeting along.

They went on to discuss SR 1110, a bill to grant $1,350 to the University’s pre-law fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta, for the opportunity to participate in a mock trial in Washington D.C. Then, only minutes following their self-lashing for wasting so much time nitpicking over the grammar of a bill, the Senate proceeded to do it again, with nobody alluding to the epiphany from moments before.

Even so, the bill was passed. Phi Alpha Delta was rightfully granted the necessary funds to represent the University in a national competition, and the Senate proved assertive in getting at least one thing done.

Graduate Senator Rachel Emas made the fair point that any bill passing through the Senate should be a source of legislative and authorial pride, representative as it is of our government’s competency.

Still, the issue of time management is frustrating and overshadows one’s sense of SGC-MMC’s progress. As the Senate ostensibly agreed, the edits and efforts necessary to ensure such a quality should be made elsewhere, preferably before being brought to the Senate floor.

SGC-MMC Commentary is a feature that evaluates the student council’s performance. Look for it every Friday.