At Wednesday night’s Associated Student Government Senate meeting, senators elected three new members to the Student Groups Committee, while three open positions remain.
The committee is intended to be made up of six senators and six non-senators, according to ASG code. On Wednesday, five senator positions and one non-senator position were up for election to the committee, which is responsible for assisting and administering to all B-, T-, R- and P-status student groups by assigning a group executive to each organization.
The committee is also responsible for holding activities fairs, reviewing student group funding during Winter Quarter and organizing student leader training in the spring, said Ben Battaglia, student groups vice president.
There was a motion to suspend the rules to allow non-senators to run for some of the senator positions on the committee this term, but it was defeated. Former Student Groups Vice President Bill Russell spoke in favor of the motion.
“It became really apparent (when I led the committee) that the requirement that we have six senators really held us back,” Russell said, adding that the requirement led to people joining the committee who didn’t really want to be on it, which “makes ASG look bad” since committee members work closely with many student groups.
Russell, a Weinberg sophomore, said this is an issue that could be voted on when the committee’s code comes up for review later this year.
Terrance Scotton and Bhargav Rajamannar, both Residence Hall Association senators, and Isaac Hasson, from Students for Ecological and Environmental Development, were elected via white ballot to the committee. A white ballot was held because there were fewer nominees than openings, so no vote occurred. All three of the elected senators are Weinberg freshmen.
Five candidates were nominated for the one open non-senator position on the committee, but senators voted to table the vote on this position until next week at the recommendation of Battaglia, a Weinberg sophomore.
Senators also filled one open position on the Rules Committee. Weinberg senior and off-campus senator Devon Pratt was elected to the position by white ballot as well, because no one else accepted a nomination for the position.
At the beginning of the meeting, Vice President Hiro Kawashima announced the status of the recently created position of vice president of services in a special order.
The position was created in Senate earlier this quarter. Kawashima, a Weinberg sophomore, said the position will likely be filled by Winter Quarter of next year.
“This is a very important position and it is going to be tough to find the right, competent person for that position,” he said. “We need to define roles and responsibilities for this position as fully as possible. We need someone with experience with products and services, including products and services that are failing.”
Some senators had written a legislative order to create a strict, four-week timeline for the VP of services position to be voted on Wednesday, but members of the Executive Board decided to hold the order until the position and its potential services could be evaluated more thoroughly, Kawashima said.
Next week, spring funding for A-status student groups will be introduced in Senate as new business.
