SGA House passes Election Day resolution, introduces new legislation
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 House of Representatives passed its first resolution of the semester on to the university’s president’s office for review.
The resolution asked that CMU implement a campus-wide Election Day policy, allowing students to be excused from class or any assignments so they can travel to their registered voting district.
Speaker of the House Christian Dunn said he is excited about the resolution being passed and moving to be approved by SGA President Carolina Hernandez Ruiz.
“I’m grateful to the house that they voted on this,” Dunn said.
Last week, the SGA Senate passed the resolution unanimously, and 94% of the House of Reps voted yes on the proposal during the meeting Monday night.
New Legislation
Two new resolutions were introduced to the House during its meeting. The first is a resolution was to amend the university’s student bereavement period from its current maximum of three excused days, to five.
Sustainability Committee Chair Kathryn House is the author of the resolution. In her bill, it states that three days off is not enough time to grieve.
“For many, this not enough time to grieve, travel or support family,” she wrote. “This legislation seeks to extend leave to five days to support students during difficult times better.”
The second resolution was a proposal to extend the deadline for course withdrawals to two weeks after a semester begins, instead of one.
This legislation was authored by SGA Vice President Aashka Barot, supported by Hernandez Ruiz, and first introduced as a proposal to the CMU’s Academic Senate.
“This is a legislation to extend the deadline to two weeks so that students who feel the class is not right for them or the professor's teaching style doesn’t align with what they want, they can drop from the course without suffering any tuition loss or effecting their GPA,” Barot said.
She said the idea came to her during the House’s legislative sessions and that she gathered students' opinions on how they felt about the university’s current policy.
The bills will be reviewed and voted on by the SGA Senate during its meeting on April 7.
