The Student Association Senate passed a bill Monday night allowing the Joint Election Committee to set the dates for this academic year’s SA elections.
The dates for the SA general election have varied in the past: in 2015, elections were held on March 25 and 26, after spring break, and elections for this SA were on March 9 and 10, before the break.
The senate voted 26 to two in favor of a bill which stipulated that while the committee may choose specific dates, those dates must be between March 1 and April 15.
Sen. Arian Rubio, CCAS-U, said he sponsored the bill to ensure that the elections do not fall on a law school or graduate program recess, which could limit student engagement in the voting and campaign process.
“This legislation makes sure the needs of the community will be involved in the dates of the election,” Rubio said.
The senate also voted unanimously – with three abstentions – in favor of an amendment to hold student organizations financially liable if they are not using the resource center supplies responsibly.
The amendment calls for the finance committee to charge student group’s SA accounts up to the price of whatever items were lost, damaged or never returned. If funds in the account are insufficient, the committee can withdraw the amount from the student group revenue accounts or deduct from future allocations.
Earlier this year the SA opened the resource center for student groups to have access to the most commonly requested office supplies like scissors and poster paper.
Sen. Devan Cole, CCAS-U, sponsored the bill but was not present. SA Chief of Staff Rayhaan Merani said the bill should not be a significant issue as the majority of the supplies are under $10, meaning any fines would not be a significant burden to student groups.
The amendment was added to a bill stipulating that if student groups use funds for prohibited reasons, they may be fined up to the entirety of their remaining funds or be ineligible for allocations for the remainder of the fiscal year. Prohibited expenses include using funds for gambling, as contributions in both on and off-campus elections, as gifts or prizes, to compensate members, for financial securities like stocks or to buy any University-prohibited items like weapons or drugs.
The resignations of Sen. Guarav Sharma, SoB-G, and Spencer Legred, the vice president for student activities, were also announced.
