In their final meeting of the year, outgoing SGA legislators approved a new student group funding process, overrode a presidential veto to sponsor MyMaryland.net and called for the athletics department to adopt paperless tickets.
Members of the Student Government Association also amended one of the body’s bylaws – a clause prohibiting student activities fees from being used to fund salaried positions – so that any student group may have their request for salary funds placed on a referendum ballot. Additionally, a pluarlity of the almost 4,000 students who voted on the SGA elections ballot opposed funding salaried positions for MaryPIRG, rendering it unconstitutional for the SGA to grant the group an exception from the old clause.
Approving new financial process The SGA unanimously approved a new process for funding student groups after several months of deliberations by a committee of SGA members and student group leaders. Rather than dole out funding in annual spring allocations, the SGA will allocate funds on a rolling monthly basis. This process would begin in the 2013-14 year.
“This was heavily thought out,” said Vice President of Financial Affairs David Berlin. “Groups will know exactly what they need. It’s more accountability for student groups, it’s more accountability for us, and it makes it a lot easier for the SGA and the student groups to get more involved with each other.”
Overturning MyMaryland.net veto Legislators unanimously overrode a veto SGA President Kaiyi Xie issued last week on a contentious bill that gave $2,500 to MyMaryland.net, a site aimed at connecting students and state residents with lawmakers.
Some legislators argued the SGA should not fund a company’s startup costs – MyMaryland.net is set to launch within a month – and Xie vetoed the bill after he and site founder Ben Simon failed to come to an agreement that redefined the organization’s relationship with the site.
However, Xie said he and Simon, a former Diamondback columnist, were able to negotiate Xie’s concerns over the past week, and agreed the SGA would only fund the site once it is launched and functional. The bill’s sponsor, letters and sciences legislator Zane Adoum, amended the legislation to reflect this, and Xie agreed to support the veto override.
“The whole point was to respect the legislature’s autonomy,” Xie said after the meeting. “We came to a consensus on how the contract would look on the SGA side of it and specific ideas in the website.”
Simon said he looked forward to having the site up and running by the fall.
“We had a lot of support from the students, from the SGA legislators and eventually from Kaiyi [Xie],” Simon said. “I’m glad he came back to the table and gave support for overturning his own veto, and I’m glad that we were able to incorporate the changes that he wanted to see.”
Rewriting the referendum clause Legislators approved a clause allowing any group to request funding for salaried positions from the SGA. Every two years on the SGA election ballot, students would then vote to support or oppose those funds.
Although it is typically against the SGA’s bylaws to fund salaries, the body had granted an exemption to MaryPIRG contingent on this referendum vote – a plurality of students voted against the funding of MaryPIRG’s salaries this year.
The new referendum would list the dollar amount of these salaries; how much each individual student would contribute toward these salaries; and the percentage of the student activities fee that would go toward the salaries.
The salaried positions of Undergraduate Student Legal Aid and Student Entertainment Events are automatically exempt.
However, legislators spent more than an hour debating the language of the clause to ensure a positive referendum vote would not guarantee funding for a group’s salaried positions. Legislators would still have to vote on how much to fund toward these salaries just as they would vote to fund any other organization.
“We just wanted to be sure that because the [referendum] result was ‘yes,’ that we weren’t bound to give them the money,” Speaker for the Legislature Carson McDonald said after the meeting.
Supporting paperless ticketing at athletic events In a unanimous vote, legislators also passed a bill calling for the athletics department to switch to a paperless ticketing system. McDonald, who sponsored the bill, would work with the registrar’s office to store ticket information on student identification cards.
“Getting rid of this paper consumption is really a remarkable change,” Senior Vice President Matthew Popkin said.
Splitting the director of governmental affairs position In a 16-5 vote with no abstentions, the body approved splitting the current director of governmental affairs position into two roles: a governmental affairs director to focus on lobbying in Annapolis and a community affairs director to focus on local issues.
Some legislators questioned whether splitting the role was necessary and would only create more bureaucracy within the body. Others worried there could be a power struggle between the two positions in the governmental affairs committee, as the former would serve as chairperson and the latter would be vice-chairperson.
However, supporters argued having two separate roles would allow the organization to address additional issues, such as off-campus housing.
“It’s a lot of work for one person, so this would let each focus on what they’re best at and their area of expertise,” said computer, mathematical and natural sciences legislator Elizabeth Antman, who sponsored the amendment. “It’s a great way to get more things done and focus on a greater variety of issues.”
villanueva@umdbk.com
