The student senate voted unanimously in favor of a referendum that would add an executive position, speaker of the student senate, to Student Government starting next semester.
The new position would operate as the role of the current vice president, and the vice president would transition into dealing with programs and initiatives and less with Student Government.
“I think that this referendum is in the best interest of our Student Government, and what’s in the best interest of our Student Government is in the best interest of our student body. We’ve grown a lot as a student government these last couple months and for us to continue that growth, this is the next step,” Student Body President Michael Parks said.
The new position would give the vice president more time to potentially work toward getting initiatives like $1 waters for students at games, student Uber discounts and Cockstock off the ground and would add 360 hours of work.
The senate debated for approximately 20 minutes before approving the referendum.
“Right now as student government is the vice president is kind of in a limbo between the legislative branch and the executive branch and he's trying to juggle two different things ... I think adding a fourth member who can focus solely on student senate and making student senate productive would make student senate and student government as a whole much more effective,” Sen. Jay Selesky of the College of Engineering and Computing said.
The referendum was first introduced by former student body president Lindsay Richardson during the student senate's 2014-15 term and has since been amended and approved.
“Some people are saying we’re trying to fix something that isn't broken, but our system is broken,” Sen. Reaghan Murphy of the College of Arts and Sciences said, “We’re 50 individuals who represent 30,000 students, and we have to go through the president and vice president to schedule a meeting with an administrator and be respected and have our ideas actually be considered. I think that’s ridiculous.”
Vice President Ross Lordo expressed a positive attitude towards the bill even though it will not directly affect him this semester.
“There's always complaints with senators about 'well, the student senate doesn’t do anything.' This is a step towards you guys to make it a big change,” Lordo said.
Now that the measure has passed in the student senate, it will appear on the ballot for students to vote on during spring Student Government elections.