SGA approves new Greek Life liaison position

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, the following article incorrectly stated what amendments outlying commuter legislator Vasco Mateus and neighboring commuter legislator Aaron Zaccaria proposed. The two proposed to reverse the approved amendment to change legislators' official titles from 'legislator' to 'representative' next year.

Due to a reporting error, the following article incorrectly stated details about the "Bringing in student testimony before and during legislative debate" proposal. This amendment recommends a written or verbal testimony from a student not associated with the Student Government Association be included with each legislation submitted to the body. The below article has been changed to reflect these corrections.

SGA legislators amended the body's guiding rules Wednesday night and ultimately approved creating a Greek Life liaison position, allowing non-SGA members to testify during debates.

Although the Student Government Association typically only votes on its omnibus bill — which reshapes the body's bylaws — every spring, legislators opted this year to have an additional debate during their final meeting of the fall semester to implement necessary changes sooner.

"This year we decided we ought to give everyone a chance to shape the organization how they want," SGA President Kaiyi Xie told legislators at last week's meeting.

Although the omnibus bill ultimately passed 17-4 with no abstentions, some representatives said they felt too many important amendments were struck down. Outlying commuter legislator Vasco Mateus and neighboring commuter legislator Aaron Zaccaria proposed several amendments — such as limiting theSGA president's power to appoint new positions within the body and reversing the approved amendment which will change legislators' official titles from "legislator" to "representative" next year — that failed.

"Although the omnibus bill ultimately passed 17-4 with no abstentions, some representatives said they felt too many important amendments were struck down. Outlying commuter legislator Vasco Mateus and neighboring commuter legislator Aaron Zaccaria proposed several amendments — such as limiting theSGA president's power to appoint new positions within the body and reversing the approved amendment which will change legislators' official titles from "legislator" to "representative" next year — that failed."

"I think that a lot of the amendments that would have actually changed the organization were voted down, so I'm going to vote against this bill," Mateus told legislators at the end of the meeting.

Legislators may have another chance to overturn the approved changes during the second omnibus meeting in the spring.

Adding a Greek Life liaison

Although the body already has a Greek legislator, only the organizations housed in the Graham Cracker and Fraternity Row fall under this legislator's jurisdiction. The body approved a new liaison who will meet with Matt Supple, the university's director of fraternity and sorority life, on a weekly basis; rotate through attending one Greek governing body meeting each week; and act as a resource for any Greek organization not represented by a governing body, such as the Interfraternity Council and Pan-Hellenic Association.

However, some legislators — including Greek legislator Ilana Avergun — questioned how effectively a liaison would be able to meet all of these obligations, especially considering many Greek council meetings are closed and require invitation.

The bill's supporters ultimately argued creating this position was necessary to ensure a voice for Greek organizations of all types — including academic, honors and community-service based organizations — accounted for by the body.

"We're leaving a hole of people not being represented, and this is giving us the chance to fill that hole," Zaccaria said. "This improves our ability as an organization to represent everyone on campus."

Bringing in student testimony before and during legislative debate

The organization approved recommending a written or verbal testimony from a non-SGA-affiliated student be included with each piece of legislation submitted. Additionally, the body must now allow any undergraduate student to testify during debates for a maximum of five minutes.

However, SGA Speaker Pro Temp Andrea Marcin originally proposed requiring testimony be included with each bill, and several legislators argued that a mandate would be frivolous down the road, especially for bills that aren't necessarily controversial.