SGA still without laws

September 19, 2013

College of Social Sciences Senators Allison Cormier and Amy Pirtle, Senator- at-large Brooke Mcfarland, and Freshman Senator Lester Duhe sit at the first SGA meeting of the year on Sept. 11, in the Audubon Room. Though SGA is in session, the group is still operating without a constitution.

Four weeks into the fall 2013 semester, Loyola’s Student Government Association constitution remains inaccessible to students.

On Aug. 16, student government was awaiting approval from the Office of Co-Curricular Programs before the organization could have the constitution public to the student body, Jasmine Barnes, Student Government Association president and mass communication senior, said.

“The constitution has gone through the Justices branch and now it’s going through the Office of Co-Curricular and we either have to get approval from Mr. Reed or Dr. Petty before it gets publically dispersed. So it’s now in their hands,” Barnes said.

As of Wednesday, Sept. 18, student government has not made its constitution available on OrgSync or the Loyola website.

Barnes said that starting the school year without a constitution was not the plan.

At the President’s Council meeting on Thursday, Sept. 11, student goverment executive staff members discussed what student organizations presidents must do to make their organizations active on campus and to be in good standing with student government.

The OrgSync portal is the method for students to access the SGA constitution and to submit an up-to-date constitution for their organizations, Barnes said.

During the spring 2013, a referendum was held for students to voice their decisions on the proposed SGA constitutional amendments.

Nicholas Armstrong, previous SGA chief of staff and acting commissioner of elections, announced amendments were approved by the students, including addition of the Finance Committee, the Associates program, and the consolidation of University Programming Board as a branch underneath SGA.

Other proposed changes were not approved by the constitutional referendum, including decreasing the number of senator and justice positions, as well as separating the judicial branch from the Court of Review.

Barnes said that there are no major changes to the constitution for this year that were not placed on the voting ballots during the March elections.

Alicia Serrano can be reached at [email protected]