The Student Government Association (SGA) hosted Muncie mayoral candidate Dan Ridenour (R) as a guest speaker at its Wednesday meeting at the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
Ridenour spoke to the senate about his campaign for mayor and his qualifications for the office before taking questions from senators about his policies and goals. He said taking on nepotism and the “good old boys club” was a priority for his campaign.
“There’s state statutes in place, and [laws on nepotism] has just not been enforced by our city the way it could be,” Ridenour said.
With Terry Whitt Bailey (D) speaking to the senate last week, Ridenour is now the second mayoral candidate to address the senate before the Nov. 5 election.
SGA Vice President Cameron DeBlasio said he hopes to get Libertarian mayoral candidate Steve Smith to speak to the senate, though there are no current plans in place yet.
“Terry actually reached out to us and asked us if we were interested in having her come in and talk to the senate, so that was on her, and then I spoke with our advisor, Jim Hague, and he recommended that it may be good if she’s coming in to invite the other candidates,” DeBlasio said.
Following Ridenour’s speech, the senate voted on two budget issues — moving funds from its Homecoming tailgate fund to discretionary funds and allocating extra funds for senator name tags. As the tailgate was cancelled, the senate had not spent the $500 allocated for the event.
The vote to relocate the funds passed, 37-0, with one abstention, as did the allocation for name tags, 41-0.
The senate then moved into a discussion and vote on last week’s resolution on adding water conservation and sustainability posters to all residence hall restrooms.
Senator Mariah Bowman, who authored the bill, opened the discussion by adding an amendment to the resolution, which states the posters will be reviewed every two years by SGA’s Community and Environmental Affairs Committee, which was approved.
Senators Marcus Jennings and James Schwer spoke in opposition to the resolution, saying the posters were unnecessary.
Jennings said the posters would not be effective based on his experience but ceded his time when Bowman said he didn’t look at the posters on bathroom mirrors “because he’s a man."
The resolution passed, 34-7, with no abstentions, marking the first time in four weeks new legislation passed the senate.
DeBlasio said he hopes the lack of new legislation means the senate caucuses and committees are working on quantity over quality with new legislation.
“What I am hoping is not the case, which I don’t think it is, is that we have caucuses and committees who aren’t really getting the ball rolling on anything, but I don’t feel like that’s really the problem,” DeBlasio said.
SGA will have an “in-senate retreat” next week in lieu of its normal meeting, during which the senators will wear their Halloween costumes.
Contact John Lynch with comments at jplynch@bsu.edu or on Twitter @WritesLynch.
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