The ETSU Student Government Association Senate voted to table legislation on Tuesday concerning public relations responsibilities for SGA.
SGA decided last year to not appoint anyone to a public relations secretary position after the last cabinet member holding the position left.
SGA’s constitution allows the president to appoint a person to the public relations secretary position if he or she desires.
The Senate felt the position was not being used effectively, and decided the president and secretary would instead market for events.
“I didn’t feel like it was necessary,” SGA President Doretha Benn said. “I wanted to save SGA money, so I do all of the public relations for us.”
The pay for the PR director position is $500.
Benn said she used the money for Dead Week and would rather use the money to fund another event for students.
The legislation was written to give public relation responsibilities to the public relations committee rather than a secretary.
“I don’t think this is a position that should be left up to a committee of several people,” Sen. Matthew Holt said.
“If we have one competent person, they could run the social media pages and publicize for SGA.”
Holt and several other senators felt too many people being in charge of social media and events would create confusion about who would be in charge of certain responsibilities.
“When there isn’t a public relations secretary for SGA, I don’t want things to fall through the cracks,” Sen. Haven Spanyer said.
The senate voted to table the discussion and legislation until the fall semester for the new senate to consider.
“You can’t make a blanket statement because every year the people who do their jobs will do them differently,” Sen. Robby Vance said.
“Personally, I think Doretha and Taylor are doing a fantastic job handling PR, but the next president might feel that a PR secretary is necessary.”
