SGA passes legislation, approves BUC Funding

The Student Government Association kicked off their first meeting back in the D.P. Culp Student Center with guest speakers, approved legislation and proposed new bills for further review.

SGA members unanimously passed legislation to support closed captioning on ETSU produced videos and materials for social media and instructional use. They also passed legislation to make religious accommodation a part of the university attendance policy.

SGA members voted 17-3 to approve BUC Funding for Students of Finance Association and 20-0 for BUC Funding for the Master of Social Work Student Association.

Patchworks Players was deemed ineligible with no penalties for BUC Fund due to an oversight. The organization filed their BucFund application too close to their event date and SGA had not let Patchwork Players know before the meeting that they would be ineligible for funding.

Christopher Santana, student trustee, informed the members on what had occurred at the most recent Board of Trustees meeting.

The board proposed tuition, housing and student fee increases.

“The concert fee this year is going to be an increase of $11,” said Santana. “We’ve seen our return on investment, if you will, on that. We just had Gabriel Iglesias and Scotty McCreery last year.”

The board also passed two new policies: a policy approving them to make policy and a policy to make meetings public record.

Two new bills were proposed during the SGA meeting.

The first proposal was to support period equity. It was aimed at bettering access to feminine hygiene products on campus.

“East Tennessee tampons, pads, menstrual cups and other supplies are taxed as luxury items,” read Noah McGill, vice president for finance and administration. “This expense may place an undo burden on students and force them to choose between menstrual supplies and other needs.”

The second proposal was to amend the SGA attendance policy.

Two information technology consultants from Campus Works surveyed SGA members during the meeting about the ease of access to internet and IT services on campus. Their goal was to compile a comprehensive report to give to the university on how to better students’ current experience with the internet access on campus.

The members raised concerns about how Wi-Fi can be limited or unavailable, how D2L wasn’t being utilized well and how IT Services could operate more promptly and efficiently.

The meeting concluded, and a reminder was made that election applications are due by Feb. 28 at 4 p.m.