By By Pat Holohan, Senior Editor
During last week's Student Government Association senate meeting Senator Jared Berry said that he would bring back his election legislation with little change. He was true to his word, splitting his legislation between a constitutional amendment and an amendment to the SGA policy series.
The constitutional amendment, which would have appointed the elections commissioner, failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority of 23, with a vote of 14 in favor, 12 opposed, and two abstentions.
Despite this, the amendment to the policy series narrowly passed, 15-14-0, needing only a majority. The legislation effected the policy series and the constitution of SGA. The constitution portion of the legislation failed, however the policy series part of the legislation passed.
"The situation now is that there is both an elections commision as stipiulated by the constitution and a debate comition as stipulated by the policy series," according to Akeem Mellis.
SGA will form a student debate commission to oversee debates. In addition, the policy implements a ranking dean to, according to the legislation, to be "the sole judge of elections, returns and qualifications of the student government members running for office."
The result is controversial, but a lack of record keeping enabled Berry to push his legislation for reconsideration. By rule, a senator who voted in favor of an amendment and lost cannot call for a motion to reconsider, meaning that Berry could not motion to reconsider his own legislation.
There was no record kept stating what each senator voted for the previous week. As a result, Senator Nitsan Ayali was able to motion for reconsideration without officially knowing whom she voted for the previous week.
Later, Recreation Center Director Pat Montagano spoke in front of SGA about the upcoming renovations to the recreation center. The renovations will begin in January 2010, and will last 12-15 months. "We want to make this an exciting place," she said. "[The renovations] are a definite improvement, will be more modern."
Construction will build off of the center's north wall. There will be extensions to the weight room, as well as the addition of individual spin, aerobics, and yoga studios. The current equipment room will be transformed into a lounge, and the track, currently covered in a carpet surface, will be a "rubber composition floor," according to Montagano. "The yoga studio will be zen-like and will have the ambience of a yoga studio," she said.
In other senate news, four senators and four students from outside SGA were elected into the Internal Review Control Board, which will audit 45-50 clubs this semester.
Six delegates were inducted as senators this week. To become a senator, a delegate must collect 90 signatures from full-time undergraduate students, attend two senate meetings and three committee meetings.
The Appropriations Committee granted $260 to the Fashion Club, $295 to the National Society of Black Engineers, and $470 each to Men's Rugby and Women's Rugby for a total of $1,495.
Complaints lodged with Student Services included the long wait time at California Pizza Kitchen, wireless internet for the Nassau residence hall, and requests for benches outside of Quincy House and New Complex residence halls.
SGA inducted six new Senators on Tuesday night. (Ryan Broderick/The Chronicle)