Danette Heredia | Staff Writer
Student government’s concerns grow around the student body’s lack of awareness on who their student representatives are and what they do. In response, S.R. 05 005, ‘The Sunshine Plan Act’ was brought to the floor with the intent of pushing senators to have more of a presence on the FIU SGA Instagram and putting initiative behind socializing students and SGA members, easily passing with unanimous vote.
Senator Martavius Lyons, the sponsor that created the resolution, was inspired by the lack of familiarity branches have with one another, specifically including resolutions that would bond one another to address this issue.
S.R. 05 005 highlights how students are unaware of the many resolutions that are being voted on in Senate and the representatives behind them, even though they heavily affect student education and campus life.
“Whereas, through engaging discussions with the student body, it has become evident that many are unaware of the various distinguished positions and roles within the Florida International University Student Government Association,” reads S.R. 05 005
Now that S.R. 05 005 was passed, any future resolutions that plan to be presented on the floor must also be brought to social media to gather student’s attention and possible support behind it.
Any new appointments to Senate, the President’s Cabinet, and Justices of the FIU supreme court are now to participate in creating an introduction post for the new appointment, as well as any vacant positions that students may be interested in filling.
One member of each branch will now table together in Graham Center to give students opportunities to interact and build relationships with student government, although dates are not specifically defined.
An annual media day will also be in effect soon, bringing student government together to create content for the student government social media pages that include: who they are, what they do, and their point of contact.
Although many senators described the intentions of the resolution as admirable, it was thought to have a lack of detail and planning behind what was expected from the branches.
“I do agree with what was expressed earlier. I think some context is needed for, again, how we’re going to delegate these responsibilities for social media,” says Senator Perez.
Because the resolution was not submitted before 48 hours of the meeting, it was only brought in for discussion and allowed Senator Martavius Lyons to revisit and strengthen his resolution in time for the following meeting.
One of the main differences between the first and second version of the resolution was the addition of a survey conducted by Senator Martavius Lyons through a Google form that was spread around by students through class group chats and similar.
“Whereas, according to a survey I administered to 33 FIU students– 63% did not know who our current SGA president was, 70% did not know of the three branches of government we have in SGA, 0% of them had a clue of any legislation passed within the senate, 70% of them did not vote in the last election,” according to S.R. 05 005.
Not only did students play a role, but student senators all contributed with new ideas and action plans, strengthening S.R. 05 005.
“Because this is my first piece of legislation ever written, …Everybody had something, you know, they wanted to add…It’s even better and it’s more stronger than it was when I first brought it,” says Senator Martavius Lyons.
These adjustments won the resolution an overwhelming majority of 38 yay’s and zero nays.
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