SGA approves addition of committes to exec. board, funds for eSports venue

Student Government Association kicked off its meeting voting on a new honorary senator Jim McGill. According to section 401.01 No.02, an honorary senator must be a person who has shown extraordinary dedication to Southeast Missouri State University student government over a period of time. The first recipient to receive this position was honorary senator Felix Kinsley in 2000. Mcgill is now the fourth person to have the honor bestowed.

SGA went onto grant $942 to the Environmental Science Association for reusable linen table cloths, banner, pots, soil mix and other supplies for their educational outreach event. Last year the event had more than 200 people attend.

Student Fees Reform Committee chair Justin Jacobs and Campus Safety Committee chair Grace Grzywa addressed five new bylaw proposals, all dealing with adding committees to the executive board.

The original proposal was to reinstate the University Affairs Committee, Student Issues Committee and the Special Projects Committee and allow them to be a part of the executive board. These positions were previously on the executive board, but for the 2018 school year, the committees were removed.

“There have been so many student issues that are being completely forgotten about because we have committees and everyone has their own stuff they have to work on and there was no room for us to adapt to what students needed throughout the year,” Grzywa said.

The bylaw proposal brought a long Q&A discussion between senators. Multiple senators did not agree with allowing certain committees to become part of the executive board while others are not and still doing the same amount of work.

Jacobs said the main reason they are wanting to bring it back is so we can have more student voices.

“If you’re on the executive board, you get to voice your opinion and help make decisions; if you're not on executive board, you can talk about issues going on in committees, but you don’t have much of an opinion or say,” Jacobs said.

Advisor Michelle Irby said this past year is the first time SGA has ever removed these positions from the executive board.

After a long debate, senators took a two-minute recess at 10 p.m.

Jacobs came back from the recess with a friendly amendment to restructure the original bylaw proposal. He added the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Public Relations Committee to the bylaw. All senators were in favor but one.

In an attempt to save time, senator Reagan Tibbs moved to consider resolutions as a whole. This passed and the bylaw proposals were passed after a long debate between senators.

The meeting ended with student government voting granting $50,000 for the equipment costs for an eSports venue in towers complex.

Jacobs made an amendment of the resolution to require a sign that shows SGA funded money for the eSports venue. He also proposed that $3,800 be funded for the computers, $800 for the gaming council, $2,200 for gaming divisions and $11,200 for the movement of the computer lab in towers.

The proposal was made to make sure the money going towards eSports is going to affect the students more. The amendment was passed but voting for the funding was postponed until next week.