TSG Senate re-elects Jeff Dempsey

The Temple Student Government Senate packed its final meeting with a senate president election, allocations bills and a new resolution.
The Senate re-elected current Senate President Jeff Dempsey for the 2009-2010 school year. Dempsey ran against Renee Gordon, a current senator for the School of Communications and Theater.
TSG senators heard 5-minute speeches from the two candidates before voting was completed by secret ballet. No exact tallies were announced.
The senators and audience asked each of the two candidates eight questions. The questions mainly dealt with how the candidates intend to hold future senators accountable for the responsibilities of their jobs.
“One of our biggest shortcomings is that we have not been more active in our schools,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey said there aren’t any repercussions for senators who fail to do their duties, aside from removing them from office.
“We need to do other things besides throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey suggested senators be compensated for completing their work and have their pays docked for not doing so. President-elect Kylie Patterson questioned where the money to fund Dempsey’s suggestion might come from.
He said the money is there, and it’s just about determining which services are most important and which cost the most money.
Farzad Firoz, this year’s vice president of services, said the operating budget and the compensatory budget are different – TSG cannot take money from one and put it in another.
“It’s not an issue of compensation,” Patterson said. “It’s an issue of expectation.”
Dempsey’s other plans for next year include educating future senators about public relations, holding Senate meetings in Temple buildings other than the Student Center and easing tensions between the executive and legislative branch by intitating more communication and teaching back and forth.
“There’s a lot of work to get done and lessons to be learned,” Dempsey said.
The Senate also passed the three highly contentious allocations bills. The bills dealt with three issues: funding off-campus events, holding voluntary off-week Senate meetings solely for passing allocations bills and explaining the term banquet for student organizations applying for funding. Sen. Gaelle Amazan and Sen. Alex Barnett wrote and proposed the three bills.
Sen. Kevin Gerard introduced a resolution supporting the 2009 Federal DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which allows undocumented immigrant high school students temporary legal status to attend college or join the military. The senate overwhelmingly passed the bill.
Jeff Dempsey and most of the members for next year’s senate were sworn in at the meeting’s conclusion.
Rebecca Hale can be reached at rebecca.hale@temple.edu.