The Student Senate spent the majority of its Wednesday meeting debating the outcome of a new bill introduced at the second reading of legislation. The bill, also known as the Diversity Training Act, was sponsored by Sen. Dami Fasina, a fourth-year studying nuclear engineering representing the College of Engineering.
Before the beginning of the bill’s debate, which lasted almost an hour, the meeting began with comments and announcements from senators about student body officer gift disclosures, the Jenny Chang Award nomination and the upcoming Association of Student Governments meeting this upcoming weekend.
“The ASG meeting is this weekend, it’s at Chapel Hill,” said ASG Delegate Emma Carter, a second-year studying criminology representing . “We’ll be nominating people for exec board, and ASG president. I think it’s really important that we all know what’s going on, especially if you’re going to be involved next year with Student Government. “
The Senate then voted to confirm a resignation of now former Sen. Carol Kowald, a second-year studying animal science representing the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Student Senate President Mitchell Moravec, a fifth-year studying material science and engineering and psychology, then began the first reading of legislation. Several bills passed the first reading including the Supreme Court Ballot Question Act, the Student Government petition Endorsement Act and the 2018-19 Budget Act.
With no motions to fast track legislation, Senate moved on to the second reading of legislation which included the Spring 2018 Appropriations Act.
“We received a lot of applicants for this cycle of appropriations,” said Sen. Lauren Siegel, a fourth-year studying computer science representing the College of Engineering and Appropriations chair. “We had 227 applications submitted. A few of those were ineligible … The only kind of discussion that happened was about line items, but the committee decided to move this on.”
Student Body Treasurer Molly Mueller added an amendment to the act clearing up a clerical issue. With the added amendment, the Spring 2018 Appropriations Act passed, along with the Compost Support Act and the Financial Literacy Month Act.
After being moved to the end of the reading of second legislation, The Diversity Training Act was heavily debated by senators.
“By implementing basic, evidence-based diversity training for all incoming students, our university can, at least in part, ease this burden we place on students within our NC State family,” said Student Government Diversity Outreach Director J. Hallen, who was a signatory on the bill. “The act of training students in basic cultural competencies will not in itself fix all problems … but it will provide a foundation off of which students can learn about the complexities of identities.”
Senators originally questioned the wording of the bill, its repercussions and the online training format.
“While I think this bill, at its core, is a very good idea, I think it’s a little ahead of its time,” said Sen. Jordan Bischoff, a third-year studying microbiology representing the College of Sciences. “Right now there’s not really an effective plan in place, there’s no real advertise service, and there’s no base that we can model our program after.”
During the period of debate, an amendment clarifying the inconsistent wording of the bill was adopted.
The Diversity Training Act passed with a two-thirds majority vote. The Senate then debated the Senate Diversity Training Act, which also passed
The meeting ended with announcements which included a reminder by Moravec of open Senate seats in the College of Design, Poole College of Management and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Sen. Sean Harrington, a fourth-year studying political science representing the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, also informed senators that the finance committee still has leftover money they can apply to utilize.
“Finance has quite a bit of money left, about $16,000,” Harrington said. “We need to spend it all. If you’re at all interested in getting financed, having a finance request, if it’s under 500 you can go directly to the committee. You will have to write a bill. If you are over 500, please submit the form [as soon as possible].”
The next Student Senate Meeting is on March 14 at 7:30 p.m. in room 4140 of Talley Student Union.
