By Pat Holohan, Staff Writer
Sean Hutchinson usually waits until the end of Student Government Association (SGA) meetings before addressing the Senate.
But on Tuesday, the president stood before the 46 senators gathered and spoke about the behavior of senators in previous weeks. "We need to put this past us and move forward," he said in reference to arguing and crosstalk among senators. "We took an oath to really serve the students."
The senate heeded his words, and there were far fewer calls for decorum than in previous weeks, and tension between Senator Jared Berry and Vice President Akeem Mellis, which at times dominated two previous senate meetings with arguing, appeared to have dissipated.
Mellis introduced new disciplinary rules. After three warnings about not following decorum, the offending senator must leave.
The Appropriations Committee introduced legislation intended to punish clubs who fail to attend committee meetings after signing up to request funds. If a club misses a meeting and does not provide a valid excuse beforehand, it will not be able to reschedule for the next meeting.
The Appropriations Committee will retain the power to decide if it will see a club at the next meeting if that club failed to appear at the scheduled time. The legislation passed with a minor amendment to its placing in the constitution.
In other Senate news, Spirit Committee Chair Victoria Vullo expressed disappointment with the SGA's lack of participation in building the organization's homecoming float. "It was horrible," said Vullo. "It didn't look that good."
Vullo said that SGA missed a "perfect opportunity" to become closer with the University's Greek life organizations. She encouraged SGA to get involved with the annual Sinterklaas, a traditional winter celebration where students create a "Winter Wonderland."
The senate also approved three clubs. Hofstra Badminton, according to co-founder Danielle Reed, hopes to "increase awareness and cultivate interest in the sport of Badminton." The Linguistics Club and Transcendance, a group based on African dance, were the other clubs approved.
The senate also elected three new senators, bringing the total number of senators to 53.
The ad-hoc committee proposed last week by Senator Anil Beria has been turned into a task force to help the president, Beria said after the meeting. Beria expressed disappointment with the result, saying, "I feel that I tried to do something for a good cause and it was shot down." Beria added that he felt "a little discouraged," but promised that he would be back in the future with other legislation.
"There are a lot of immature senators," Beria said, regarding behavior in previous weeks. Beria then added that he felt the attitude of today's senate was "very professional," and "The level of professionalism is increasing."
(Photo Courtesy of Hofstra SGA)