By Michael B. Murphy
Assistant News Editor
Senators voted on a proposed amendment that would see the addition of a senate chair and the elimination of five executive board positions during the Sept. 11 SGA meeting.
Vice President Larry Liuzzo explained that if the new amendment passed, SGA would see the creation of a Senate Chair who would call and preside over all student government meetings.
Liuzzo said the idea for the amendment was inspired by how other student governments operate.
“There was an overwhelming majority of SGA’s that had another officer run the meetings,” he said. “We debated back and forth for a few months and came to the decision to adopt the same policy.”
SGA President Hannah Bruce, who currently presides over all SGA meetings, sees the creation of a new senate chair as a positive and doesn’t mind losing presiding power.
“The president tends to be the most knowledgeable about policies and procedures on campus,” Bruce said, “but they have to be non-biased. They’re not really able to present their opinion.”
A Senate Chair would help alleviate the pressure of having to watch what she said as president when answering questions in an unbiased way at SGA meetings, she said.
The motion for the proposed amendment passed unanimously.
If the amendment were to be added to the SGA constitution, it would lead to the elimination of five executive board positions – a senator-at-large representative and four senator of the class representatives.
According to the amendment proposal, these five executive board seats are “ineffective” and “do not have a specific job.” The new senate chair would replace those five seats as the representative to the executive board of SGA.
In other news, SGA advisor Richard Davino announced his departure, effective immediately, as he will leaving FSU for a job opportunity.