The Student Government Association indefinitely suspended a bill presented to them at Tuesday’s meeting.
The bill, known as the “Residential Life and Campus Safety Initiative,” was written to seek proactive approaches to campus safety issues such as sexual assault and domestic violence. These approaches included adding deadbolts, cameras and lighting to residential halls and requiring the Campus Building and Grounds Committee, Residential Life, Student Affairs Administration, Campus Police and SGA to form a task force to look into any and all safety concerns.
However, many senators believed the language of the bill read as a resolution, rather than a bill.
“A resolution is like saying we as a governing body approve this and would like to see this done,” said Alex Martin, Senator for the College of Business. “The reason it needs to be a resolution is because we don’t have the authority to tell ResLife they have to form a committee. A resolution is simply a suggestion; a bill is something you have the power to enact.”
Matthew Heath Simpson, Senator for the College of Education and author of the bill, was not present at Tuesday’s meeting. Sarah Bruce, Freshman Senator, presented the bill.
“The main things (Simpson) stressed to me were the dead bolts on the door and the lights in the parking lots,” said Bruce. “As far as tonight’s decision is concerned, it is was it is. He wasn’t here to present his points. There are no hard feelings.”
“Since I’ve been in SGA, we haven’t had a lot of resolutions,” said McDonald. “We are trying to push towards utilizing them more. Since we haven’t done a lot of resolutions before, it was important for the senate to understand what that entails. We have passed bills that should have been written as resolutions.”
SGA meetings are held every Tuesday at 9:15 p.m. in the Tech Pride Room. All Tech students are welcome to attend.
