SGA presents first part of revamped closed captioning bill
Senate Leader Nolan Kamoo presents the joint Senate and House agenda during an SGA meeting over WebEx on March 8, 2021.
In a rare joint Student Government Association House and Senate meeting on March 8, senators and representatives reviewed the new closed captioning legislation for the first time.
It focused on turning on automatic closed captioning in lectures and providing training to professors and students on how to use it. A third-party solution to closed captioning will be possibly presented in another piece of legislation, SGA Senate Leader Nolan Kamoo said.
Senators and representatives alike voiced support for the legislation. Senator Gabby Hugo said that the draft was "articulated better" than the failed draft and a good starting point.
The last paragraph on offering training was "extremely important," Executive Secretary Olivia Schwartz said.
"A lot of professors would not be willing to take the time to learn (how to activate the captions)," Schwartz said. "It has to be a requirement."
In addition, SGA has altered the way students can submit drafts of legislation.
- The first draft must be submitted by Sunday at 11:59 p.m.
- The draft is then sent back Wednesday at the latest, along with a meeting with House Speaker Kyle Walker.
- The second draft must be submitted by 12 p.m. on Friday.
- The draft is then sent out to the rest of SGA on Friday.
- SGA has three and a half days to review the draft through Engage Central.
- Joint Senate and House meeting on Monday when introduced
The rest of the process remains as it was before. It would then be sent to House and Senate separately to comment and vote or table the legislation.
Kamoo said the new process is to allow authors to present the "best draft possible" to students.
Other business
The last day to submit legislation is April 12, according to an SGA press release.
SGA's Election Board will be holding a "Meet the Candidates" event on Thursday, March 11 via Facebook Live. Through the event, students can meet the candidates for the next SGA administration.
So far two tickets for administration have been announced. Candidates on the first ticket include Kate King for president, Dylan Baker for vice president and Kevin Bautista-Mancilla for treasurer. The candidates on the other ticket include Kyle Walker running for president, Nolan Kamoo as vice president and Olivia Schwartz as treasurer.
