Senate Corner
Senate makes big changes with modernization act
February 14, 2014
The week of Feb. 3, 2014, brought big changes for Student Senate. After four weeks of introduction, Vice President Anthony Sumnicht’s and Non-Traditional Representative Matthew Hobbs’ Student Shared Governance Modernization Act passed Senate with a 22-0-1 vote.
This motion was presented before winter break and completely revamps Senate and streamlines its processes. Although Senate passed this motion, the process is not over; now it is up to the students of UW-River Falls to express their opinions on the changes through a referendum vote. The referendum vote started at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, and will close Friday, Feb. 14 at 4 p.m. Students wishing to better understand the Student Shared Governance Modernization Act so that they may offer a more informed vote may review the details of this act on Senate’s OrgSync page. In addition to the Student Shared Governance Modernization Act referendum vote, the students will vote on the support or denial of a spring semester Homecoming.
In other Senate news, two at-large positions were fi lled the week of Jan. 28 by sophomore Christopher Morgan and freshman Grace Curran. More recently, at-large Senator Jeremy Schottroff resigned leaving one at-large Senator position open. Any interested students may apply on Senate’s OrgSync page.
The Senate committees Allocable Fee Appropriations Board and Facilities and Fees have also been very busy with budget season upon us. AFAB oversees the allocable segregated fee process (i.e. funds allocated to student activities), and F & F oversees the non-allocable segregated fee process (i.e. funds allocated to departments and operations of the University). Currently, AFAB is in the middle of the student organization budget deliberation process and has cut $190,483.48 of the $405,472.87 needed to match the total funds available for student organization budgets. F & F subcommittees have been working hard and F & F hopes to begin voting on department budgets this week.
Finally, AFAB has obtained an additional $4,000 from Senate in single-event funding. All eligible student organizations who wish to hold events this semester should apply for single event funding via OrgSync.
Sam Tauchen is the 2013-2014 president of Student Senate.