The Student Government Association voted in favor of a Senate seat for Student Voluntary Services, despite SGA President Ben Tietz vetoing legislation that could have helped SVS.
The Senate passed legislation Nov. 10 that would have clarified the process for an organization to apply for a seat in the Senate, ended a deadline of the first full week of October for application and created seven more seats in the organizational caucus.
Tietz voted against the legislation, though, partly because the legislation did not provide a clear process that the credentials board was to follow when interviewing applying organizations, he said.
Tietz made the decision Wednesday night after talking with the executive board and his chief of staff, he said.
"It's important to understand that we're in complete agreement with the legislation," Tietz said. "Some of the logistics we have a problem with.
"We believe the legislation leaves too much to interpretation."
The legislation came about after Abbie Albaugh, on behalf of SVS, tried to apply for a seat. However, SGA gave her the wrong application and no one seemed to know what the process was for applying, she said.
"The current bylaws are just confusing," Albaugh said.
Albaugh said she was frustrated when she first heard Tietz vetoed the legislation but understood the need for clarifying the credentials board's role.
Albaugh originally thought the role of the credentials board was to work out the logistics of joining SGA, she said. However, when the board interviewed her, members focused on why SVS deserved a seat in the Senate, something she was unprepared for, she said.
Steve Geraci, president pro tempore and co-author of the legislation, said he was not sure all of Tietz's arguments were reasonable and wished he would have heard them earlier.
"If there were these issues in his mind, why didn't he come to me before?" he said.
However, the Senate called an executive meeting at its weekly meeting Wednesday to go ahead and vote in SVS, Geraci said.
Although SVS did not technically meet the current deadline, SGA was to blame and therefore could assume the correct application would have been turned in on time, Geraci said. The Senate could then allow the credentials board to present a case for SVS.
Albaugh, who has attended Senate meetings for the past month, said she was happy her organization would be able to officially be a part of SGA.
"I'm truly excited," Albaugh said. "This is the first step to a long relationship between us."
The Senate has the choice to override the veto, which requires a two-third vote. The Senate voted in favor of the legislation 28-6.
Geraci, co-author of the bill, said he was not sure what course of action he would take.
"I was surprised," he said. "You hate to see something you've worked on get shot down.
"Seems like we did a lot of work, and it was for naught."
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