In SGA Elections, Students Vote For More Than Candidates

SGC-MMC Senate Speaker David Nivia reviews referendums during a senate meeting.

Teresa Schuster/Staff Writer

For the first time in years, students will vote on referendums in SGA elections that will be held next week.

Two potential changes to the SGA’s legislation will be on the ballot. Both are intended to update outdated rules to make the SGA operate better and be more representative of FIU’s student body.

The first, on remunerations, would allow the student government councils of the Modesto Maidique Campus and the Biscayne Bay Campus to decide independently what to pay their SGA officials.

It would help ensure that officials from each branch of government are more equally compensated for their work. Under the current legislation, some are not allowed to be paid as much as others.

The SGA vice president is now paid up to 75% of the president’s pay, but the senate speaker can only be paid up to 32%, for example.

The new language would change these caps, but wouldn’t necessarily change officials’ pay.

“The purpose here is not to increase the salary of anybody,” said David Nivia, the bill’s author and current SGC-MMC senate speaker, pointing out that this year officials’ pay was below the cap. “This gives each branch what they deserve and what they need in order to have fair checks and balances.”

The other resolution would adjust the amount of senate seats allocated to each college at MMC.

The current number of seats per college was determined decades ago, according to Nivia, and no longer accurately reflects the colleges’ enrollment.

For example, the college of business has only four senate seats, despite now being the third largest college at FIU.

“If a school has x amount of students, and they’re underrepresented, are we doing justice for them?,” asked Nivia. “The numbers don’t lie.”

The number of seats would be changed in light of the updated enrollment data for each college, and the SGA would continue to do so in future years in response to enrollment changes.

The two resolutions were passed by the senates of both the Modesto Maidique Campus and the Biscayne Bay Campus with almost unanimous support, and Nivia said they are “bipartisan”.

In order to take effect, they now require the approval of three-fifths of the students who vote in SGA elections. According to Nivia, who is graduating this semester, it’s important for students to vote on the referendums regardless of whether they support them, as well as on the candidates running for office.

“Elections are great, but at the end of the day, these two referendums would be able to impact the student body in a positive manner,” he said.

The full text of the referendums can be found below.

Elections will be held online on April 7th and 8th, between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m each day. Students will vote on the referendums as well as their SGA president and vice president, and the senator for their college.

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