Student Senate met for a relatively short meeting Wednesday, Feb. 26 to perform sizable internal changes to legislative committees and allocate several thousand dollars to student organizations, $5,000 of which is set to go toward a research symposium dealing with graduate student mental health.
Graduate and Lifelong Education Sen. Kelsey Horn, a second-year graduate student in public history, was appointed to the position of Senate historian.
GB 120 – Senate Committee Restructuring Act – Unanimously Passed
According to Miles Calzini, a second-year graduate student in chemistry, there was an uneven distribution of labor among Senate committees. The Government Relations and Oversight committee (GRO) received far more legislation than the Academics, University Affairs and Student Relations committees, and this would restructure the workload.
GRO’s responsibilities would shift entirely to oversight, and a newly formed Rules Committee would be established to keep track of any changes to student body statutes. The University Affairs and Student Relations committees would be merged into a new Student Affairs Committee, which would focus on outreach and policy of interest to students. In addition, a new appointments committee would take over the Committee on Onboarding and Leadership Development’s oversight of appointments.
R 118 – Gender Affirming Language Use Encouragement Act – Unanimously Passed
This resolution pushes faculty and staff to utilize a new MyPack Portal feature allowing students to include a preferred name and gender pronouns. Additionally, it encourages adding a section to course syllabi reflecting this.
FB 130 – Helping Hand Project Funding Act and FB 134 – SVA Funding Act – Unanimously Passed
These two bills were considered in block. The former allocates $1,000 to the Helping Hand Project, a student organization that makes prosthetic hands for children, to pay for materials and equipment. The latter allocates $750 to the Student Veterans Association, an organization that aids student veterans.
FB 133 – TAGS Funding Act – Unanimously Passed
Graduate and Lifelong Education Sen. James Withrow, a Ph.D. student in biology and entomology and president of the Graduate Student Association, said that though this is far more money than is typically requested through the Finance Committee, this is a very good use of funds. Graduate students are six times as likely to experience depression and anxiety compared to the average person, and Withrow said GSA is working to organize a large-scale conference to look into the issue at NC State. The $5,000 requested would be a small part of costs toward holding the conference.
R 136 – Witherspoon Voting Center Act – Unanimously Passed
This resolution aims to encourage moving voting precinct 01-23’s polling place from Pullen Park Community Center to Witherspoon Student Center in the interest of making it easier for students to vote, as the precinct is largely made up of NC State students. Some senators were skeptical whether the move would increase turnout, as Talley Student Union is already a largely underutilized early voting center.
Senators also debated finalists for the annual Jenny Chang Award for Outstanding Student Service. The three finalists are Roanna Tha Taw, staff member at Fountain Dining Hall; Melvin Jackson, director of graduate student recruitment, mentoring and success at the College of Education; and Sarah Beth May, assistant director for the University Scholars program. The body went into closed session for this deliberation. The winner of the award will be announced at the upcoming annual SG banquet.
