Temple Student Government held its last general assembly meeting this year on Monday, April 28.
The meeting began with elections commissioner Alex Barnett’s announcement that the new TSG Constitution has been ratified. TSG received a total of 2015 votes in favors of ratification, with 83 votes opposed.
Barnett also announced that run-off elections will be held on April 30 and May 1. Owl V.O.I.C.E.S and Temple Reloaded will be the only slates competing since they placed first and second in the general elections.
There will only be online voting during the run off elections.
The meeting continued with the swearing in of the new TSG Supreme Court justices. The judicial branch will be a first for TSG next year.
“They will be the oversight to the executive board and Senate. They [the Supreme Court] will make sure that they are doing their jobs,” said Juan Galeano, TSG President. “They will serve as the checks and balances for the new government.”
The justices are Alejandro Herrera, Nalo Robinson, James Baraldi, Regina Guignard, and Keith Davis. They will serve until they graduate.
Jon Desantis, TSG Parliamentarian, swore in the new justices.
Galeano announced that applications for the Senate are due May 5. Students interested in running are instructed to email a resume and cover letter to studorgs@temple.edu. Galeano will present the applications to the deans of the appropriate schools on May 7 and they will appoint the senators.
“If I was a sophomore or a junior, I’d apply to be a part of the Senate,” Galeano said.
The meeting ended with officer reflections. Many of the officers are graduating this year so they will not be able to see all the changes come into effect next year. All the officers expressed their gratitude to the students who attended the meetings.
“You guys are the ones who make student government work,” Farzad Firoz said.
The officers also stated that although this year was sometimes tedious and hard, the change was worth it.
“What I’ve learned this year is that change is extremely difficult,” Galeano said.
This year, TSG completely restructured its government, wrote a new constitution, and wrote a new elections code. TSG will now be comprised mainly of a student Senate, along with an executive and judicial branch. The current executive board and members of TSG hope that this change will increase student involvement and awareness with TSG.
“You work on the inside before you work on the outside,” said Brad Hoffman, TSG treasurer. “TSG needed to be restructured in order to become more effective.”
Rebecca Hale can be reached at rebecca.hale@temple.edu
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