Presidential “pro-temp” resolution sent to committee (News)

With a new position being proposed in the Student Government Association comes passive aggression and controversy. This has already happened with the resolution 04182007A, which creates (or was going to create) the new Legislative position “President Pro Tempore.”

This position would be a significant boon to bringing more power over to the Legislative side of the SGA from the Executive Board.

One of the major shifts of power the resolution proposes is taking seemingly major responsibilities of the Vice President. The major ones being the coordinator of all standing committees and “[to] serve as ex-officio member of all the committees and commissions of the Student Senate…” This position will also be elected by the Senate directly in a fair election with no bumbling election committee to gum up the works.
During Wednesday April 28’s SGA meeting the SGA Affairs committee proposed a motion to defer the resolution to the committee. What the committee’s motivations were to bring it into the committee are unknown except to the committee because reasoning was not given during discussion or during the committee report.


Buck Skeen, the creator of the resolution and advocate for bringing power back to the Legislative body, said this about the deferment, “[The resolution] will probably die in the committee.”

While it is important for the executive council/board/etc. to have a certain amount of power and responsibility, it is also important that the Legislative body have powers and responsibilities of its own and having a system of check and balances to even things out. Right now, with very little representation vested into the Legislative body the scale is tipped more into the favor of the executive board.

However, it seems certain members and future members of the executive board want to keep the Legislative body as powerless and have as little representation as possible. While never explicitly stated out loud, certainly some of the implications of the actions taken by some of these people make intentions clear.

On the other hand, the people that matter most (the students) are apathetic to what the SGA does. From an outside perspective, it just seems like petty squabbling for who can do what. But it cannot be stressed how important more representation for the students is. Having someone who is in a position of assumed prestige and is willing to stand up and fight for the students and be an actual member of the Student Senate is a lot more than being just being an organization representative or a Senator.

It may be the end of the year but SGA still works and functions during the summer months with ideas, resolutions, and policies being created often. While the last SGA business meeting is this week, next year’s first meetings will be interesting ones and should be looked forward to by anyone who is interested in the student side of the inner workings of the university.

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