Abbie Albaugh met one obstacle after another when she startedapplying for her organization to obtain a seat on StudentGovernment Association.
So many obstacles blocked Albaugh's path that she did not meetthe deadline of the first week of October, she said, and herorganization, Student Voluntary Services, was left without aposition on SGA.
A proposed change to the SGA bylaws would help end Albaugh'sproblems by clarifying the application process and extending thedeadline, Steve Geraci, president pro tempore, said.
The proposal came from Albaugh's problems, he said.
Albaugh, a senior and program coordinator for Student VoluntaryServices, said the SGA bylaws left out guidelines explaining theapplication process, no one could answer her questions and peoplegave her the wrong applications.
Albuagh wasn't the only one confused -- senators didn'tunderstand the bylaws either.
"The problem all of the sudden was we had vacancies in theorganizational caucus and had no idea what to do," Geraci said.
Organizational seats in SGA are permanent and limited to eightseats, so it has been awhile since an organization applied for aposition, Geraci said. Two seats opened up when the Non-TraditionalStudent Association and African Student Association left.
The organizational caucus is also the only one with a deadline.The off-campus, on-campus and at-large caucuses allow students toapply throughout the year.
Along with clarifying the application process, the proposal willalso add seven seats to the caucus, which is the smallest caucus inSGA. At-large has 10 seats, on-campus has 17 and off-campus has17.
"I believe it's a good thing to open up the organizationalcaucus because it allows more of the campus to be represented inthe senate," Kent Roberson, organizational caucus chairman,said.
Geraci said he wanted to set the cap at 10 to make it even withat-large but increased it to 15 after organizational leaders saidthey wanted to make up for under representation.
Albaugh said she agreed with expanding the number of seats, butthat SGA should be careful.
"I think currently we need to have more organizations, but theyneed to be organizations well represented by faculty and students,"Albaugh said.
The proposal stipulates that an organization must fall under theguidelines in the student code. It also does not set a requirementfor members, Geraci said, but smaller organizations will have toconvince SGA they represent the campus.
Geraci will present the proposal to SGA for a vote on Wednesday,he said.
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