The sixth and final Senate session of the semester was called to order on Wednesday, April 25 in Harvey Hall at 9:30 p.m., passing all four legislations, one among intense controversy.
Josiah McGee, SGA vice president, opened Senate by welcoming everyone to the final session of the semester and asking John Pope, temporary chaplain, to come lead the room in prayer. Following this, SGA Attorney General James Matthew Wyatt invited the candidates for senior class president, the only competitive race, to come give a short speech before voting opens this week. SGA Ambassador Chris Johnson came to the podium next to give his report and to inform everyone of debatably the most exciting news of the night.
“As of May 4, the ice cream machine will be back in Cobo,” Johnson said as the room filled with cheers.
SGA Treasurer Madeline Fleming reported to the students that Senate is left with a remaining $550 in their budget. Because no bills were brought forth this session, the remaining money will be spent to provide the student body with donuts during finals week. Specific details will come later.
“We did a great job this semester. We had more bills this semester than ever before and we definitely want to see more of that,” Fleming said.
The night’s agenda included four resolutions. The first, sponsored by freshman council, asked for the university to upgrade parts of Harvey Hall, leaving specific upgrades up to faculty. This resolution passed with no questions. The second, sponsored by sophomore council, asked that the university would renovate bathrooms in the PAC, SUB, and Grant Center. After pictures and written reports were shown for each bathroom, the room was in full agreement and passed the resolution with flying colors. The third, sponsored by class presidents, was a resolution asking that the university would mandate course evaluations department-wide. According to IT, only about 20 percent of students participate in evaluations currently. This resolution passed.
As the evening continued to its final resolution, Jonathan Greer, along with other class presidents, came forward to present Senate Resolution 197-21. Specifically, the resolution asks that Union University would adapt the current chapel system in such a way that would allow for an optional servant leadership component for the comprehensive spiritual development of students.
In layman’s terms, this would be an optional program for sophomores, juniors, and seniors to participate in medium-term student service opportunities. Greer explained that to qualify, these acts of service need to be weekly involvements. Examples given were leading a bible study, leading worship and other things directly involved with the local church on a regular basis. After speaking with the IT department, Greer explained that there would be a system created to serve as a check-in. Monthly reports would be sent out to sponsors, who would then fill it out and send it back to the university, where the Office of University Ministries would then be able to access it.
“Monthly check-ins will facilitate accountability and also give the university an opportunity to see the influence students are having in the community,” Greer explained.
If qualified for this, you would then only receive up to half of the required chapel credits because the importance of communal worship was not lost on the sponsors. However, when the room opened for discussion, the resolution was met with concerns from many senators. There was reasonable opposition to this resolution, and arguments were made on the case of students should be able to both complete required chapel and serve in the community, chapel is an important part of the Union community and people long to worship together, it may now open a door for people to falsify situations and get out of chapel and servant hearts should in turn want to be a part of the body coming together for chapel.
“Our intention is not to give students a way to skip out on chapel, but instead an opportunity to embody mobilized worship,” Greer stated.
By the time voting came around, the legislation passed with 70 in favor and 31 opposed. Resolutions, however, do not make anything official. Instead, it just passes through Senate to then be given the opportunity to be presented before faculty.
Moving forward, McGee shared with the room that the SGA executive branch spent this past weekend hard at work revising the SGA Constitution and Bylaws. Overall, the revisions were not drastic, but instead made improvements and corrected wording. Within the Constitution, revisions were made to change the names of current officers from president, vice president, secretary and treasurer to executive president, executive vice president, vice president of administration and vice president of finances to update them to more modern terms. Also, revisions were made to the senator attendance policy and impeachment procedures.
Within the Bylaws, revisions were made to update and clean language as well as change the homecoming nomination process. Both the Constitution and the Bylaw revisions passed with no opposition.
Abigail Johnson, SAC president, came to the podium next to invite everyone to Music: A Magical Night at Union on April 26, in the chapel at 8:00 p.m. for a Disney-themed performance. Along with popcorn provided by SAC, there will be a costume contest and prizes for best dressed. The final movie on the lawn was announced for May 11. The latest Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, will be shown.
After a long night in Harvey Hall, the last gavel of the semester sounded the end of Senate.