Douglass Gavilan/Staff Writer
The Student Government Association, a student-focused group responsible for the representation of the student body and the distribution of student fees to University organizations overseen by the Student Affairs office, announced a few changes in the organization’s constitution.
The SGA constitution, which rules over the management of the group and how the election process takes place, amended the amount of senators allowed on each campus and the University-Wide Council’s meeting schedule, and redefined who can run for president and vice-president of SGA.
According to the SGA constitution, the student council at the Modesto Maidique Campus will increase its Senate seats by six, which afterwards will bring its overall seats to 38. However, at The Biscayne Bay Campus, the council will see a decrease, where its 21 seats will be no more than 17.
The amount of senators representing the SGC-BBC group will distribute its Senate seats.
“What we can get from these constitutional changes is that now we can choose how to allocate the seats,” said Leonardo Cosio, SGC-BBC chief of staff. “We have 17 spots. Now, SGA officials can give more representation if we see that it’s needed.”
Another change to the constitution sees the redefining of the requirements needed to run for president or vice-president of SGA on each campus.
The amended constitution states that any student hoping to run for either position must have completed 30 credit hours when they intend to run. The student must have also completed two consecutive semesters in at least one other SGA position. Finally, non-SGA agencies, bureaus and governing center members may run if no qualifying members is running, as stated in the constitution.
The University-Wide Council, a group consisting of the president, vice-president, speaker of the senate and speaker pro-tempore from both the MMC and BBC, votes on changes to the constitution and also made changes to the frequency of meetings.
“Before, the UWC would only meet during the summer,” said Meredith Marseille, SGC-BBC comptroller.
The president, vice-president, speaker of the Senate and speaker pro-tempore of the UWC act as voting members while non-voting members include the comptroller and chief justice from both campuses.
“There was nothing specific to say when we would meet but now there is,” Marseille said.
The change forces the UWC to meet twice per semester including summer semesters. During summer, the group reviews and make changes they deem necessary.
Minor changes to the constitution include the renaming of the Broward Pines Center, which will now be called the I-75 Center; the official inclusion of the Executive Cabinets, which previously wasn’t included.
All of the new changes can be found in the SGA constitution online at sga.fiu.edu.
Photo by Eduardo Merielle, retrieved from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/merille/4748114958/in/photolist-8ezka1-qMoTDe-bKyG4K-4ufst7-4updjh-4uk9w2-4updk5-diDStj-84936g-6ZT7yp-qBbBMX-8493y8-8ew38v-84c7Nj-dgUbMV-cRZes7-84c7YU-8493vM-8493iZ-8493XK-75kXYn-8AuSeE-84941n-noESii-55f86b-8493MF-84c86d-cCNb6o-atTSg5-55f85w-6ZT54B-84c8sG-8ew34M-75kXJV-atTS1A-7bQAiR-pstkF2-dUw1ac-5jf6oV-5jf6uc-46U4yK-itUfX9-fopmXV-4wdE7V-84c8pw-4GYhMS-kfuoNM-84c8ZN-84c8Ub-8494r6