The Student Government Association meeting got under way this past Tuesday with a debate on 606 funding.
Making a total of three 606 funding sessions heard by the Senate thus far, this one constitutes the last session of the semester.
With seven organizations requesting funds, the Senate, upon the 606 committee’s recommendation, appropriated $3,138.24 of the total requested amount of $9,799.08. The only organization for which there was a heavy debate was Campus Crusade for Christ .
CCC had been recommended for zero funding by the committee due to a clause in the SGA Code of Laws that required all organizations requesting money to appear before both the committee and the Senate.
CCC did not send a representative to the 606 meeting.
Vice President Jennifer Berry brought up the fact that the representative from CCC was completely new to the 606 process and had made a mistake with regard to the date of the committee meeting.
She argued that CCC’s proposal should at least be further reviewed by the Senate and not just dismissed out of hand.
“We have made exceptions before,” Berry said.
Consequently, the Senate then decided to go into a committee of the whole to debate the proposal in-depth and to weigh whether or not there was justification to override the 606 committee’s recommendation to zero fund CCC.
The committee of the whole is a process under Robert’s Rules of Order by which the whole senate may act as a committee.
While normally there are only a few senators on the 606 committee, by going into committee as a whole, every senator present becomes a temporary 606 committee member.
However, due to the fact that all 606 committee meetings are closed to the public, everyone but the Senate was required to leave the meeting.
After the Senate went back into normal session, it voted to uphold the original recommendation.
Stating that “because of some of the things I heard in here,” Berry issued a tie-breaking vote to zero fund CCC.
Also, this week, the senate bill to rewrite the Code of Laws to remove the senate clerk’s position and have the secretary-treasurer take on the responsibilities, was voted on.
Sen. David Lane, the sponsor of the bill, told the Senate that; “basically this bill is to bring our Code of Laws into line with the Constitution.”
The bill passed unanimously. The second bill on the agenda, which would have unified the Kingsport and Bristol Senate seats into one seat, was not heard because its sponsor withdrew it from consideration.
Both these bills had been tabled for the past two weeks due to the fact that they had not been posted in the legislative notification box for the student body to read.
The box had suffered severe water damage during a pipe break in the Culp Center, and the bills were unable to be posted until the damage was repaired.
Also discussed was the ETSU Giving Campaign, which had just begun. Thus far, Berry said, the campaign had raised around $600 of the $5,000 goal. Stressing that the campaign was important and not yet over, Berry urged people to contribute.

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