Student Government continued its joint session, discussing changes to the new constitution in The Constitutional Overhaul and Student Government Reform Act of 2019.
Monday, Nov. 18, the session continued from last week to discuss changes to the Student Government constitution. The proposed changes aim to, “reform all components of Student Government in accordance with recommendations from the Student Government Taskforce.”
When voting on whether to incorporate separation of powers between the legislative and executive powers of government in separate bodies, 14 members of Student Government voted in favor of separation of powers while seven voted against, one member abstaining.
A vote took place to determine the role of Student Directors in Student Government as outlined in the new constitution. Option one specifies that directors can be members of senate and have voting powers, while option two wouldn’t allow directors to be Student Senators concurrently.
With 14 in favor of Student Directors having voting power in the senate and 10 opposed, the amendment to allow Student Directors to be Senators concurrently passed.
After over two hours of debate and discussion on amendments to the newly proposed constitution, Student Senators moved onto the first item of old business, “A Resolution to Establish an Environmental Service Fee Committee University Policy and Procedure Statement.”
Currently, the committee is given $86,000 yearly in environmental service fees. According to Student Senator and sponsor of the legislation Colon Halter, the committee has over $100,000 saved in reserves and doesn’t properly distribute the money around campus.
In the resolution that passed unanimously, student representation will be present in the committee, which determines where the funds for the Environmental Service Fee are allocated.
A resolution to, “Provide Student Identification Card Safety Resources” was proposed. This legislation would request Texas State to provide easy-to-access phone numbers on the back of all student IDs issued by the university to provide quick access to resources students may require.
In new business, a resolution on the senate agenda is being proposed to cancel the meeting scheduled for Monday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. Student Senators will vote on the legislation at next week’s meeting, which will be taking place Monday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m.
Student Government meetings are open to the public and are held every Monday at 7 p.m. in the LBJ Teaching Theater. The meeting agenda and resolutions can be found on the Student Government website.