The weekly meeting of Student Government Associ-ation got underway opening with remarks from ETSU President Paul Stanton. The Senate had the opportunity to hear about and ask questions on issues concerning the status of higher education in Tennessee.
“We’re at the bottom of the nation in funding,” Stanton commented. He explained that less than 20 percent of adults in Tennessee have a bachelor’s degree, and convincing the legislature to prioritize education is extremely difficult.
After Stanton concluded his remarks, the 606 committee presented its funding recommendations to the Senate.
With the exception of Alpha Xi Delta’s request, all the committee’s suggestions were passed by the Senate.
In the case of Alpha Xi Delta, the Senate questioned Student Life and Leadership’s position concerning the 15-day rule for on-campus speakers and/or performers. This rule requires that all 606 proposals for on-campus events be submitted and approved at least 15 days prior to the event so that contract negotiations can be worked out with the party being brought to campus.
Alpha Xi Delta, in cooperation with Student Life and Leadership, had already completed contract negotiations before the funding session. Their event fell within 15 days of the funding session.
Sen. David Lane then questioned whether or not the rule would be circumvented for other organizations under similar circumstances.
When it came time to question the representative from Alpha Xi Delta, Sen. Chris Ziegler, chair of the 606 committee, suggested that the Senate go into committee of the whole and close the meeting to non-senators on the grounds that only committee members were allowed to see the 606 applications. On Zeigler’s recommendation, Lane made a motion to close the meeting which passed.
This would bar the press, spectators and any non-voting member of the Senate body from hearing the debate over the committee’s “zero funding” recommendation for Alpha Xi Delta.
No comment was available on what occurred while the meeting was closed to the public.
After 606, the Senate moved on to debate tabling both the Ziegler Bill on 606 and the Lane Bill on the senate clerk for another week.
In the ensuing debate, heightened tensions became evident, resulting in an outburst involving members of the Senate and the vice president.
Both Sen. Natacha DeLaney and Lane said that comments made by Vice President Jennifer Berry were “uncalled for and inappropriate.”
Lane, in an interview, stated that, “I don’t see [Berry’s comments] so much as an insult, but as a reflection of inexperience.”
He expressed his regret over the whole incident.
Berry said that she was, “sorry if they were offended,” but that she was, “trying to make a point that the legislation did not need to be tabled.”
In further developments, DeLaney, in an interview, expressed her concerns that SGA had no committee chairpersons that were of an ethnic minority.
“How can you talk about having a diverse SGA when you have only five (minority) members to represent all minorities?” DeLaney posed.
DeLaney expressed her reservations that younger and more inexperienced members, such as Sen. James Heck (who is in his first term), received chairperson appoints, while minority members with more experience, did not.
Berry, who makes chairperson appointments, said, “I asked two minority members of the Senate to serve as chairs.”
She was happy to point out, however, “SGA has gone from [being] nearly all white to having a sizeable diversity.”
SGA now has at least five members of various ethnic minorities with several of them being returning senators.
DeLaney, while not disagreeing with the need to appoint the most qualified senators to chair positions, expressed her concern that SGA had become merely “a white, Greek organization.
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