SGA revises its bylaws, goes over annual budget
Members of Central Michigan University's Student Government Association meet on Feb. 4 for their weekly meeting. (Blace Carpenter | CM Life)
The Central Michigan University Student Government Association approved several changes to its constitution and bylaws during its meeting Monday night. The association spent most of its general meeting reviewing and rewriting different articles within its governing documents.
Most of the revisions were fixing some grammatical errors and simplifying some of the language used in the bylaws. However, the association also added some responsibilities to different executive positions and clearly defined their voting process.
Here are some of the major changes:
- Outgoing presidents will meet and train incoming presidents at the end of their terms.
- The SGA vice president, chief of staff, director of operations, historian, election director and committee chairs must submit legacy notes about their position for future executive members.
- Three seats in the Student Budget Allocation Committee (SBAC) will be reserved for a member of the SGA General Board to serve, previously were only two members.
- A conflict-of-interest clause is implemented into the SBAC voting process to prevent members from voting on their own RSO.
- Safeguards are written to protect future elections from possible fraudulent or malicious behavior.
- The SGA SBAC Hardship Review Committee will be appointed by the speaker of the house and the treasurer (previously was the SGA president and vice president).
SGA Senate Leader Drea Hammond is part of the Constitutional Bylaws Committee. She said that the committee wanted to ensure these changes were accurate and professional.
“We got together, we presented our edits and then we discussed them thoroughly,” Hammond said. “We have to make sure this is presentable. It’s a public document; it needs to be professional.”
Vice President Aashka Barot said the changes will not go into effect until May 1, 2025.
SBAC presents its report for the past semester, current numbers aren’t finalized
SGA Treasurer Akua Acheampong presented SBAC's report and where the committee currently stands financially.
In her report, Acheampong said SGA was given $24,000 for the 2024-2025 year and has spent $8,385, leaving them at $15,614. However, she said this total is not reflective of their budget currently.
“There is a disclaimer, because some of these things that we spent money on have not actually actualized and don’t include any of the amounts that we have spent for spring,” Acheampong said. “So this number is not reflective of how much we actually have in the bank account right now.”
SBAC was given $80,000 for the year. According to the report, they have around $35,380.95 left for projects and $25,208.48 left for conferences. Acheampong said these numbers are also not final.
She said the final number of remaining funds will be coming soon.
In other events:
- The SGA House and Senate didn’t meet Monday night, due to the general meeting going past 9 p.m.
- The Academic Affairs Committee made around 50 Valentine’s cards to give to different professors and students.
