More students are being represented by Student Government Association, as Today's Black Women was approved for a Senate seat Wednesday and is the first organization to be approved since 2004.
At the weekly SGA meeting, the TBW president, adviser and SGA representative presented why their organization should receive a seat. After the senators held an Executive Session, they voted to give them a seat, with 42 votes in favor, 4 against and 2 abstentions.
The last organization given a seat in Senate was Student Voluntary Services, in Fall 2004.
TBW has been trying to gain a seat since Fall 2005. The organization did not have an official faculty or staff adviser, which prevented it from presenting at the last SGA meeting. Derrick Virgil is now the adviser and former adviser Tatum Rucker has become the co-adviser. Virgil said he was excited about TBW's seat because it would give black women better representation on campus.
"TBW could bring issues that pertain to African-American women that weren't addressed before," Virgil said.
To finish the application process, TBW presented a PowerPoint presentation explaining what its mission was, the events it does on campus, what it hopes to accomplish with a seat and how it would help SGA.
"We were required to give a five minute presentation and we chose to do a PowerPoint because we had so much information and they [senators] needed to see," TBW's SGA representative Michelle Thomas said.
After the presentation, TBW thanked the senators for allowing it to present and answered questions from the senators. Thomas said the senators asked tough questions.
"I think their main concern was whether BSA [Black Student Association] was representing the black women already," Thomas said. "We had to prove TBW was different."
Today's Black Women has about 25 to 30 members, which is a small number compared to the other groups with Senate representatives.
"One of the critiques was their organization is small, but SGA believes that those 30 students represent a larger constituency," SGA President Asher Lisec said.
Thomas said she believed BSA has done a great job as a voice in SGA for black students. While some senators brought up concerns that BSA and TBW would be representing the same people, Thomas said her organization serves a more specific group.
"We represent a minority of the minority," she said. "We want to be represented in a more intimate way."
Most SGA senators had a positive reaction to the addition of the seat. The majority stood and applauded after the decision was announced.
"SGA is excited to have TBW join because they will offer a different view to SGA and represent a constituency that did not have a strong voice before," Lisec said.
SGA has decided not to accept any more Senate applications until the by-laws are revised, Lisec said. The description of an adviser is ambiguous and needs to be revised.
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