Students from the John V. Roach Honors College will have seats in the House of Student Representatives for the first time following the student government elections on April 20.
The four new Honors College seats were added as part of the House’s annual appropriation of delegates to different colleges. The resolution was one of four pieces of legislation discussed in the House meeting Tuesday night.
Speaker of the House Merillat Pittman said the number of representatives per school changes each year in direct accordance with the percentage of students with majors in each college.
Pittman said that although students don’t have a specific “honors” major within the college, its addition was necessary according to SGA bylaws.
“Our constitution requires that we represent every academic area on campus,” Pittman said. “As this (John V. Roach Honors College) is a newly added college.it was fair and legal that we add them.”
The Elections and Regulations Committee reassigns House seats based on the percentage of the student body per college each year, as required by the Student Body Code.
Elections and Regulations Committee Chair Garyn Goldston said the four honors seats were taken from the Neeley School of Business, which lost two, and the College of Communication and the College of Science and Engineering, which each lost one.
Pittman said each of those schools saw a decrease in their makeup of the student body population.
In Tuesday night’s meeting, the House also discussed the following:
The House passed a resolution to look into researching the possibility of adding drinking fountains around the jogging trail in Worth Hills. The bill’s author, Saman Sadeghi, a freshman AddRan College representative and political science major, said this concern was brought to him by another student. Student support, namely support from the House, is necessary for the university to research the project, he said.
The Campus Advancement Committee proposed a bill that would designate $200 from the House’s finance budget each year to purchase new DVDs for the library. It was passed with 30 out of 31 votes.
In accordance with the Student Body Code, the Executive Cabinet proposed a budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The House approved the budget, which does not include the increase in the student body fee as passed by the student body Thursday because it still requires the approval of the university’s Board of Trustees.