The Student Government Association Senate voted to create the Office of the Vice President of the SGA for 2012 Wednesday night during their weekly assembly.
The original vice presidential motion was presented Dec. 2 and was tabled and abandoned after vocal opposition from the Residence Hall Association.
Legislation author, SGA Senator Zac Broughton and the Administrative Affairs Committee retooled the motion, taking out parts regarding powers the vice president would have with the RHA and student trustees.
“It is similar [to the original motion],” said Administrative Affairs Committee Chair Nick Barton, “but this is a new motion.”
“I’m relieved to finally get it passed,” said Barton, who explained that the RHA part was “not passed or popular,” so they took it out. The new vice presidential motion passed without debate.
The motion, set to take effect this spring, was amended at the last minute to take effect during the 2012 spring elections with the support of Barton and Broughton.
“It was a timing issue,” Barton said about the last-second change.
The 2011 elections are taking place Mar. 8, 9 and 10 and Barton said there was not enough time.
“It’s not fair to students to elect a position that did not exist,” he said, “it’s hard when people are already running for president …and it [would be] very difficult on the election commissioner.”
The vice president will replace the former position of chief of staff and will take over the funds allocated to that position.
The vice president will take over for the president if the president is incapacitated or whenever the president empowers the vice president to fulfill his duties. The vice president is also a delegate to area governments, presidential appointment coordinator and chief advisor to the president.
The vice president will be elected with the president, on one ticket, not as an independent candidate.
“The position isn’t going to radically change anything,” said SGA President Brandon Tower, who was not in attendance for Wednesday’s meeting, “but in terms of procedure, it makes sense.”
“This will provide for a much smoother transition in [the] event [that the president vacates his office] and ensure continuity in policy direction,” he said.,
He added, “Almost all other student governments have at least one vice president if not multiple ones, and there’s good reasons for that. We should be no different in that regard.”
Also during Wednesday’s meeting, the University of Massachusetts system-wide budget was discussed.
Student Trustee Mike Fox explained that with $54 million systems budget deficit, fees will rise either once this year and then again next year or up 14 percent for the next several years.
Fox said, “We need to let the state know that we are an asset … the burden on us is to sell the pitch … this is an investment for the state.”
A working version of the textbook swap website was unveiled before the senate with screenshots of various aspects of the site. The site will act as a UMass-only Craigslist for books, requiring a UMass student email address to access.
Senator Nathan Lamb reported there will be a second round of orientation for all freshmen the weekend before school starts. Freshmen will move in on Thursday and have events Fri., Sat. and Sun..
The freshmen will have a common reading book, “A Hope in the Unseen” by Ron Suskind, on which orientation events will be based. The weekend will be structured similarly to the Commonwealth Honors College Welcome Weekend, and will raise fees for orientation from $175 to $300.
Upperclassmen will no longer be able to move in early. They cannot move in prior to the Sunday before class starts.
Sam Hayes can be reached at [email protected].
