At Wednesday’s Student Government Association Senate meeting, senators approved more student appointments to University committees. Appointments are expected to continue through at least one more upcoming Senate meeing. | Courtesy of SGA Photographer Iker Rodriguez
On Wednesday evening, the Senate of the Student Government Association held its fourth meeting of the fall semester. It was also the fourth meeting where the Senate made appointments to university committees.
During the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, senators heard and voted on appointments, and SGA members announced initiatives and projects. SGA President Shane Smith tried to impart a sense of urgency on the Senate.
“The next six weeks will make or break this administration,” Smith said. “If you have projects, it is getting to late to say ‘I’m going to start next week.’ They need to start now.”
SGA President Shane Smith announced that at Saturday’s football game at TDECU Stadium, a student concession stand will accept Cougar Cash for food purchases as a part of a pilot project. If successful, more concessions at TDECU Stadium may begin taking Cougar Cash.
Seven students, who were nominated to eight University bodies by SGA Vice President Rohini Sethi, were approved by the Senate. There are 10-15 more appointments to be made, Sethi said. The Senate will vote on some of those at the next meeting on Oct. 26.
A number of the new student committee members had concerns over the work of the bodies they were joining. Among them is Valentin Perez, who presides on the largely inactive Bookstore Advisory Committee. Perez was voted onto the Activities Funding Board, which allots money to the University’s registered student organizations.
“$42,000 was not used last year for organizations, and I think that is a lot of money that should have been used,” Perez said.
Perez called for more balanced funding of student organizations. The process of applying for funding is difficult to navigate, and the process privileges older organizations that have an easier time raising money for their own functioning already, Perez said.
Finance junior David Kazanci, who now sits on the University’s Traffic Court, said he saw flaws in the court’s process but was unsure whether they could be rectified.
“The whole traffic court appeals system is pretty much he said, she said,” Kazanci said. “I really hope they can fix that, but they probably can’t.”
Sen. Fahad Rehan was approved to the CAPS Advisory Committee. Since May, Rehan has been part of the CAPS Task Force, an SGA working group designed to assess the on-campus counseling center’s issues and propose solutions.
Rehan was appointed in part to help solve the CAPS Advisory Committee’s organizational problems.
One student was denied a position on the Hearing Board, while two others were absent for their would-be appointments to the Campus Recreation Policy Board and the Center for Students with Disabilities, respectively.
The Senate also approved two students to join their ranks. Sen. Quinton Beaubouef represents the Cullen College of Engineering, and Sen. Ashley Jain is from the College of Technology.
Finance freshman Nikhil Htampy’s appointment as the SGA Director of Finance was also approved by the Senate.
Several new projects were announced at the meeting, including the new Service Partner of the Year program. Smith selected the Food Recovery Network as this year’s organization.
The Food Recovery Network, which Smith said does “outstanding work,” recovers food from restaurants which would otherwise be thrown away and give it to food banks or homeless shelters.
