The Student Bar Association Senate approved a new technology law student organization at their meeting Tuesday.
Senators unanimously passed the Tech Law Students Association Blog Approval Act, which approved the formation of Tech Law Briefly, a student-run blog covering technology law. Sen. Anissa Tanksley – the sponsor of the bill and the chair of the student organization and the charter committee – said the charter committee reviewed and internally voted to approve the Tech Law Briefly’s application before the full senate vote, following an amendment to their constitution.
The Tech Law Students Association submitted an amendment to their constitution specifying policies for the blog’s creation, oversight and dissolution, according to the SBA’s bylaws.
“Their hope is to provide a space where current and timely articles regarding the intersection of technology and law can be available for students,” Tanksley said.
SBA President Nicole Karem also addressed an incongruency between the budget that the University gave the SBA in July and the budget they gave them at the start of the school year. Karem said the SBA believed they were to receive $168,000 in July yet reduced it to $144,000 at the start of the school year.
GW reduced the budget to allocate more student funding toward the University-Wide Programs Fund, which funds large and multicultural events for graduate and undergraduate students to attend. Karem said she was concerned that undergraduate students, not law students, are the ones primarily attending these events.
“The University told us that they did this unilaterally without asking any of the student organizations what they thought about it because they were trying to build community,” she said. “To which I respond, ‘What community?’”
The senate also approved Wolfgang Paulson and Roger Johnson to the SBA Supreme Court, which, like the Student Court, litigates on conflicts having to do with the SBA. SBA Sen. Preston Eagan introduced three nominees, only two of which secured the position, and said all nominees met the necessary requirements.
Two vacancies remain in the SBA Supreme Court, according to the SBA Constitution.
The next Student Bar Association meeting will be held Sept. 27 at 9:15 p.m. in the Law Learning Center.