The Student Government Association upheld a veto of committee journal legislation during last week’s meeting.
President Derrick Whit-son’s veto of the recently passed legislation sparked more discussion about the merit of requiring committees to maintain journals or minutes of all meetings.
Whitson said the legislation would only compound the problems that SGA is experiencing; some of which are poor attendance at Senate and committee meetings, failure of senators to consistently work mandatory office hours and failure of committee chairs to submit committee attendance records.
“What we’re essentially doing is taking problems that are already in existence, and, rather than fixing those problems, we’re going to cause more problems,” Whitson said.
“We need to focus on getting office hours done, attending Senate meetings, attending committee meetings and getting those attendance records turned in,” he said.
Several others agreed that the journals would add to duties many senators are shirking.
“I see this as just adding another list of items in the constitution that will be discarded,” Sen. Ron Keller said.
Although all agreed the problems need addressing, several senators felt the committee journals would promote involvement and responsibility within the Senate.
“I don’t see how this (journal requirement) could do anything but improve things,” Sen. George Taylor said.
Sen. David Lane, the bill’s sponsor, believes the legislation would benefit future SGA members.
“I believe this is a proactive measure to improve SGA in the future,” Lane said. “I feel that if we don’t plan for the future and if we focus on problems that no one seems to have answers to, then we’re doing nothing to help the student body.”
Other senators agreed that the journals would be helpful for future members to see committee precedents.
“I really like this legislation,” Sen. Jennifer Berry said. “As a committee chair, I would like to have seen what committees have done in the past: their ideas, what they’ve done, who they’ve talked to.

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