| March 6th, 2018

Monday night senate meeting: confirmed or denied/pass or fail

By: journeymagazine

Photo credited to Aliyah Glover

Words By| Aliyah Glover

Monday nights senate meeting was called to order by senate president at 6:17pm shortly followed by a prayer and the reciting of the schools Alma Mater. Tonight, there were two Confirmations that took place one for a vacancy in Deputy of Student Lobbying and another vacancy Deputy of student Welfare.

First up was Cameron Spruill candidate for the Deputy of student lobbying position. Spruill began with a two-minute opening introducing himself and why he applied for this position. Spruill shared his passion for working with student government and felt that this would be a good entry level position for him.

After the 10-minute questioning Senator Natalie Antenor motioned to deny the candidate,due to Spruill appearing to lack the knowledge of what this position would entail and wasn’t quite aware of things going on campus. Some of the senators wasn’t sure that Spruill was qualified for the position but some felt that he was the right fit he just wasn’t prepared so they voted on the motion to deny and the motion failed.

This confirmation was tabled for the next meeting scheduled for March 19th, 2018.

Next Confirmation was Kaelin Randle up for the Deputy of Student Welfare. Randle expressed her observations that some students say they haven’t enjoyed their experience at FAMU and she felt the need to change; primarily, because her own experience was the total opposite. She’s enjoyed her years here and wished the same for current students and incoming freshman.

“I applied for this position because I’ve always felt the need to help and once I saw the vacancy I knew that this is what I wanted to apply for.,” said Randle, a Pre-Pharmacy major.

Senator Jeremiah Carter made a motion to accept this candidate; the senate took a vote and 18 senators agreed to accept with none opposed.

Randle said, “I feel grateful and excited about being appointed and I cannot wait to start in this new position. I am very excited to work with the Secretary of Student Welfare and start helping students also very eager to see the changes to come.”

The peak of tonight’s meeting was the FAMU First Year Experience Program’s Common reading program Bill. With only $10,306 left for allocations some senators were very reluctant to agree to funding this bill. There was some unreadiness in the chambers as a motion to strike the bill came on the floor.

The bill originally was written to be appropriated $13,120 which would allow two thousand incoming freshmen to receive a book to read over the summer and discuss in there SLS classes.

They recommended to reduce the cost to $6,560 which would only allow up to one thousand incoming freshmen to receive the books.

In the gallery was a representative from Graduate Student Association offered to pay half of the reduced cost which would be $3,280 if the senate were to pass this bill.

“Graduate Student Association works to support graduate student success as they matriculate through their various programs and recruit the next generation of changemakers to graduate school. So, I feel this was the perfect opportunity to get involved and allow the student a to receive good info through this novel.,” said Alex Washington, Graduate Student Association Chair.

There was a comment from one of the senators that they have funded over $10,000 to organizations to put on shows so it shouldn’t be a problem to spend money on something that will benefit the students education. There still were disagreements about funding the bill. They felt that it would be fiscally irresponsible to fund the bill and allow the senate accounts to go in the negatives.

There was a motion to accept the bill and a vote was held and the bill failed.

“I am an advocate for education and the power of reading. There some messages in literature that few uncover because they are not willing to open a book. I have mixed feelings about the bill failing, if people voted against it because it is fiscally irresponsible and that was their sole reasoning I can support that. If people voted against it because they didn’t read the book and their friends didn’t then don’t vote to punish others because of your personal choice.,” said Washington.

The senate will not be meeting next week due to spring break, but will return March 19th, 2018.For more information about the Student Government Association visit their website or call 850-599-3624.