On Nov. 1, Temple Student Government held its fifth senate meeting in which its members voted on and passed two Senate bills.
The meeting began with the inauguration of the new Senator for the College of Liberal Arts, Jillian Kochis.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Keith Davis then announced his resignation from the court. TSG now has a vacancy and is operating with four justices.
After a series of officer and advisory reports, Senator for the College of Education Monica Rindfleisch introduced Bill R10-10, “an act confirming the Elections Commissioner Search Committee for 2010-2011.”
The elections commissioner holds several responsibilities including: “overseeing the electoral process” and “advertising and promoting candidacy and the election process.”
A nominee for the position of elections commissioner, Christina Savage, was introduced before TSG. Savage had already applied and interviewed by the Ad-Hoc Elections Commissioner Search Committee for the position.
Savage’s elections marketing plan presented several marketing strategies, a situation and costumer analysis and the challenge TSG is tackling with voter turnout.
The goal, Savage said, is to increase voter turnout from last year’s 10-percent to 15-percent. The Elections Marketing Plan states that many students “don’t care” or “are too lazy to vote.”
“I’m trying to make sure that TSG candidates can run as fairly as possible and to ensure that everyone follows the rules,” Savage said. “In addition, I want to get as many people to vote as possible.”
TSG voted on and passed Bill R10-10, ushering Christina Savage into the elections commissioner position for the 2010-2011 elections cycle.
TSG President Colin Saltry then led the second reading of senate Bill R10-9, “an act providing for a competitive incentive initiative.”
Bill R10-9, or the “Points for Performance Act,” is a compensation plan based on a points system in which eligible members with the highest number of points receive a proportion of funds in the form of Diamond Dollars.
“Our biggest concern now is making sure that everyone has a stake in the game, so that we can move forward and better represent [the students],” Saltry said.
Some TSG members were concerned about the behavioral characteristics used to assess points such as commitment, initiative and willingness to contribute and dependability. Others were concerned about the competitiveness the bill could cause and argued money as an ineffective and “dangerous” incentive.
TSG then voted on and passed Bill R10-9 after making changes to several sections.
Saltry said during the next senate meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 15, TSG will be discussing the preliminaries for a “long-term, strategic planning initiative,” which will be a new foundation for TSG.
Cary Carr can be reached at cary.carr@temple.edu.
Be the first to comment