New senators learned about parliamentary procedures, bills and the importance of attendance at the first SGA meeting of the year Tuesday night.Attendance will be taken seriously this year because many times last year poor attendance prevented SGA from meeting quorum. Without quorum, bills could not be passed.
“A lot of people are misrepresented when you miss meetings,” SGA President Sean Ochsenbein said to the senators.
Attendance to committee meetings was also encouraged.
“The smaller committees are where stuff brews and where stuff starts to happen,” Ochsenbein said. From smaller committees, ideas filter upward to becoming a reality on campus.
Of the new senators present at the meeting, six were freshmen. This is the first year freshman have served as part of SGA instead of as a separate house.
“Instead of being their own entity, they will be full voting members,” Ochsenbein said.
Freshmen will no longer have to pass a bill then send it to the SGA to pass as well, eliminating the two-step process and providing more interaction between freshmen and upperclassmen members.
More than 100 freshmen applied for the six positions, SGA Secretary Erin Chambers said.
Freshmen, being new to campus, are able to bring a fresh perspective to the student government, according to Ochsenbein.
Another way to bring fresh perspectives to SGA’s attention is through forums. SGA will be planning student forums during the semester for students to voice their opinions on what they would like to see changed on campus.
The next SGA meeting will be held at 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29 in RUC 324.
