At its last meeting of the semester on Wednesday in Talley Student Union, the Student Senate failed to override Student Body President Jackie Gonzalez’s veto of Finance Bill 52, the Mini Grant Reform Act.
Finance Bill 52 was sponsored by Sen. Sean Harrington, a fourth-year studying political science, and called for Student Government to expand the guidelines that govern the type of issues funded under the Social Justice Mini Grant to include humanitarian and philanthropic issues that might not fall under the umbrella of social justice.
The mini grant, passed the Senate in 2015, exists to support students in hosting educational programming on social justice topics.
Gonzalez, a fourth-year studying political science, defended the veto in an override statement. In her statement, she emphasized the importance of Student Government’s role in supporting student activism, and explained that she finds contradictions in some of the clauses contained in the bill.
“I did not misinterpret the legislation because the override statement just kind of reiterates the bill and it still validates my reasoning for a veto,” Gonzalez said. “Members of the Student Senate did express their concerns over how quickly the bill was voted on with very limited debate which kind of kickstarted my thought on whether I should sign this bill or not … Expanding the scope of the Social Justice Mini Grant waters down its importance and the reason for its conception.”
Sen. Belton Moore, a second-year studying economics, originally voted in support of the Finance Bill 52, and reversed his decision after reading the more information and agreed with Gonzalez’s statement.
“While I do think it’s important that we have a specific definition to support social justice organizations, there are a lot of great organizations out there that do great work” Moore said. “But this bill … was put in to specifically support those organizations because a lot of time that support isn’t there for those organizations. I know OIED has that grant that they have over there, but that’s only a limited amount of money and this work, there’s no end to it really.”
With 18 confirmative votes, 29 negative votes and 7 abstentions, the motion did not meet the two-thirds majority required for it to pass, and by extension there was no override of the veto.
Senate Resolution 63, known as the Williams Expulsion Act, was submitted on behalf of Government Relations and Oversight Committee by Chairperson Ryan Dunn, a second-year studying political science, was also approved at the meeting. The resolution calls to expel Sen. Jacob Williams, a fourth-year studying natural resources, for excessive absences.
Dunn explained the reasoning behind the resolution to the Senate.
“Sen. Williams, a Senator within the College of Natural Resources, has an accrued excessive amount of absences and has failed to communicate with the Senate Body President, myself or the committee” Dunn said.
The Student Senate’s next meeting is scheduled to be held in late January.
Dominic Rodts, a first-year studying engineering, speaks about efforts to improve the lighting in front of Bragaw and in the Brickyard at the Senate meeting in Talley Student Union on Nov. 29. Suggested improvements for the situation included a $1 million replacement of current lights with LED lights. The improvements will be organized through NC State's facilities division.
