On Dec. 2, Ball State’s Student Government Association (SGA) held their weekly meeting over Zoom and voted on changes to the Student Code of Rights and Responsibilities.
Changes to the student code of conduct were presented by Mike Gillilan, Ball State director of student conduct. Gillilan said the code of conduct underwent “significant changes” that included multiple reviews by personnel on campus.
“This resulted in a lot of superficial changes in the way that the Code is set up now,” Gillilan said. “It made it easier to use, hopefully, to understand and also to defend in litigation, which occasionally happens.”
Changes in the code of conduct included allowing the university to withhold a diploma or final transcript and allowing the university to remove a student or student organization from an award. Gillilan said that either of these would only be used in “drastic” cases and are mostly hypothetical.
The senate voted to pass these changes with a vote of 36-1, with no abstentions.
The senators also voted on an amendment establishing the SGA endorsement process that was introduced at the Nov. 18 Zoom meeting. This amendment defines a process SGA can use to endorse actions by campus amendments.
Senator James Wells proposed an amendment to this amendment, which would allow individual senators to endorse organizations.
“I want to propose this before the Senate to ensure that as individuals, we can make those decisions on our own merits,” Wells said.
The senate voted to pass Wells’ amendment with a vote of 34-1, with one abstention.
After voting on Wells’ amendment to the endorsement amendment, the senators passed the endorsement process with a vote of 33-0, with three abstentions.
SGA also introduced a resolution that would create a partnership between Rent College Pads and Ball State University.
Rent College Pads is an organization that helps college students find homes off campus and eases the process for them, as described by guest Steve Catlin, director of strategic partnerships at Rent College Pads.
“We’re looking to come together with one place that students can find all their off campus housing options and help students really understand what they’re getting into ahead of time with how leases work, what they’re signing on to, how to pick roommates and how to build accountability among landlords,” Catlin said.
If passed, the resolution will allow the university to enter a contracted partnership with Rent College Pads on Feb. 1, 2021, which would include a customized housing website for students to use when looking at off campus housing.
The resolution will be voted on at a later date.
The senators were also presented with an amendment defining the impact of voting choices of senators and how they will calculate the result of a vote, which is not defined in the SGA bylaws.
The amendment defined a “yea” vote as a yes, a “nay” vote a no and an “abstain” as an abstention vote. Each abstention vote will be removed when calculating majorities, but will still be recorded in an abstention column.
This amendment will also be voted on at a later date.
SGA President Connor Sanburn addressed the senators, expressing how pleased he has been with the senate this semester and what they have accomplished.
“I want to thank you all for such a great semester. While it has been a tough fall with the spring looking just as difficult, I want to remind you that you are all so appreciated for the work you do for the student body,” Sanburn said, “Next semester might look a little similar, but we don’t have to treat it that way. College is what you make of it and you are all setting yourselves up for success.”
Contact Maya Wilkins with comments at mrwilkins@bsu.edu or on Twitter @mayawilkinss.
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