Tuesday night’s Student Senate meeting may have had a late start, which resulted in the cancellation of a new Senate member orientation workshop, but that didn’t stop senators from getting down to business once the meeting began.
Beginning at 8:30, the 83 senators present approved four resolutions and four committee seats within the first six minutes of the meeting by unanimous consent.
The resolution, Proposing Revision to the Rules and Procedures, authored by Michael Christ, increased the rounds and minutes of pro-con debate senators may have when discussing candidates for committee positions.
Instead of two rounds of pro-con debate, senators will now have three rounds with each round extended to three minutes per side.
“I felt that we needed a little bit more time in case there were more senators that ever wanted to speak,” he said. “It’s a good bill and good in building the institution of Senate.”
One of the resolutions that passed, Student Bill 2014-1021, supports the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act in the U.S. Congress. Senate President Dylan Fisher, who co-authored the bill, said that Senate supports the bill because it will have immediate effects on the students at UF.
“All in all, the beautiful thing about it is this just makes housing better for students,” he said. “It would directly affect the University of Florida … so this is something that we (Student Government) would support. That’s why we unanimously passed that as far as taking steps for housing safer and creating more opportunities for students at the university.”
Senators also unanimously passed a resolution that supported funding for the Generation Sketch Comedy show. The resolution was authored by the allocations committee and will grant the organization $175.
Leah Miller, chair of the allocations committee, said the organization is “excited to hold another event.”
The last resolution that passed, which supported the Spring-Greening Day, was co-sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and represented the Senate’s support for e-waste recycling.
E-waste recycling is defined as recycling “electronic equipment near or at the end of its useful life,” according to the resolution. It represents more than two percent of the total waste in landfills.
Senators chose to unanimously approve the four recommendations for committee seats.
Victoria Fernandez was appointed to the allocations committee, Nadia Kemal was appointed to the budget committee, McLane Edwards was appointed to the judiciary committee, and Jacquelyn Smith was appointed to the rules and ethics committee.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 3/19/2014 under the headline "Senate passes resolution to extend debate rounds, time limit"]
Senate President Dylan Fisher addresses a resolution supporting the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act on Tuesday evening in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom. All four resolutions passed.
