The Student Government Summer Planning Committee wrapped up discussion on merging the Undergraduate Organization Relief Fund, Graduate Organization Relief Fund and Programming, Support and Initiatives Fund. They concluded discussion on College Councils as well.
The committee has tentatively named the merged committees the Student and Organization Support Fund, but the name is still up for debate.
Former SG President J Hudson helped streamline the constitution for the merged committees.
Some of the changes discussed were removing all references to the Vet School, removing the chair of the Student Senate Finance Committee, removing the graduate student appointed by the Graduate Student Association president (pending their approval) and having two undergraduate students appointed by the student body president and two student senators elected by the student Senate.
Senate Speaker Aaron Caffarel told the committee this change would better represent how the University looks and how the committee operates.
Other changes included limiting the practice of appointing proxies, meeting quorum, naming the duties of members and how to limit funds.
Students will have to vote in a special election at the beginning of the fall semester to approve these changes.
Caffarel said he hoped to have a student vote within the first few weeks of the fall semester to implement this.
To approve the changes to the college councils, Caffarel told the committee it would take about five bills and that they would present those to the Senate in the fall.
Caffarel said they would have a separate bill to assure current elected college council members that they would keep their seats for the coming year — the new changes will be implemented the next year.
Caffarel told the committee that he was in the works to get “clickers” for the Senate.
He said he is working on a price estimate for 75 “clickers” and a receiver, and the software would be free.
“This will save hours of time,” he said. “It can help with roll call and voting.”
Caffarel said he is hesitant to have the clickers covered by student fees, and is working to find other means of funding the purchase.
Director of Finance Amber Guillory suggested talking to ITS about renting the software to try it out for a semester.
SG President Cody Wells said he is still working to get more sponsors for the Oregon football game bus trip.
“Hopefully we will have a much improved sponsor list this year,” Wells said.
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Contact Rachel Wilson at [email protected]