On March 21, Temple Student Government met for its third senate meeting of the spring semester. Student Body President Natalie Ramos-Castillo introduced a proposal to restructure TSG, which students will be able to vote on in the upcoming TSG elections.
Senate President Colin Saltry, who is running for study body president against former senator Malcolm Kenyatta, reminded TSG members that it is the first day of the 2011 elections cycle and urged them to visit uvote.temple.edu to read more about both tickets, Owl Future and A TU Nation.
Senator for the College of Education Monica Rindfleisch presented the report of the Academic Affairs Committee. Rindfleisch said the committee compiled an index of broken links to hand into computer services and is now looking into discrepancies in academic policies that Vice President of External Affairs Damon Williams plans to discuss with the provost.
Senator for the College of Liberal Arts Alyssa Ecker said the Academic Affairs Committee is working to find out why many students are not using university parking passes. Ecker said the committee is also trying to have the university’s SEPTA pass program advertised on more than just the Bursar’s Office website.
Ramos-Castillo reported on the proposed change in structure for TSG which, if passed, would eliminate the three separate branches, but have a general assembly in which all students can become a part of.
“Myself, [Williams] and Alex [Shelow] really want to leave behind something that is going to last for many years,” Ramos-Castillo said.
Ramos-Castillo said barriers between the three branches and difficulty achieving student involvement inspired the proposed change in structure.
The new structure will include meetings every Monday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Every first and third Monday, Ramos-Castillo said, the whole general assembly will meet, and every second and fourth Monday, the general assembly will break into committees.
Ramos-Castillo said four positions will exist in the general assembly including representatives-at-large, student organization representatives, school and college representatives and a class council representative. The general assembly, she said, will then be split into committees based on what members’ interests are.
To become a representative-at-large, Ramos-Castillo said, students would have to attend four consecutive general assembly meetings.
Saltry said that under the proposed structure, student organizations will be required to attend all four monthly TSG meetings in order to receive allocations.
“This way,” Ramos Castillo said, “we actually get [students] involved, and they would want to actually come instead of us having to force them to come.”
Students will be able to vote on whether or not to implement the proposed structure changes at the TSG elections on April 5 and 6.
“People, who want to be involved and should be involved now can be,” Saltry said.
Cary Carr can be reached at cary.carr@temple.edu.
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