The Boston University Student Government Senate voted on four proposals, heard a progress report from the executive board and confirmed a new director of city affairs in a Senate meeting Monday night.
Senate voted against a proposal from Hafzat Akanni, president of SG, that aimed to amend the SG constitution. The amendment would have mandated the existence of a College Governments Presidents Council for each annual administration.
Senators also voted to change the name of the Executive Advisory Commission to the Judicial Advisory Commission. Currently, the role of the JAC involves scanning SG archives and uploading them to the SG website. Andrea Gomez, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and chief justice of SG, said the judicial commission hopes to expand the JAC’s role to include advising on current SG proceedings using prior SG activity as precedent.
Isabella Newell, a freshman senator in CAS, said in the meeting that the name change is a logical course of action given past discussion in Senate regarding role distinction between the three branches of SG.
“We’ve talked about confusion between the three branches,” Newell said. “If [the EAC] is under the judicial branch, the cleanest thing to do is call it judicial.”
The Student Election Commission presented a budget request to Senate, asking to double the SEC budget from $2,000 to $4,000. SEC co-chair Vanessa Rodriguez, a sophomore in CAS, said the need for the budget increase stems from an unexpectedly large number of slates currently running in e-board and at-large elections.
The additional funding would go towards catered SEC events, such as a Town Hall and Debate night to engage the student body in the election process. The funding would also provide small budgets to each e-board and at-large slate running in the election to support their individual campaigns.
Katie Foley, a sophomore in the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, said she believes additional funding for SEC is necessary to ensure the 2020 election has the best possible outcome.
“I think [this funding] was necessary,” Foley said. “It’s going to help the slates to hopefully find a winner that will make BU even better than it is already.”
SG Executive Board presented a progress report, addressing the ways in which they have made advancements in each of their platform’s original pillars: health, community, underrepresented students, student life and relationships.
Members of e-board touched on initiatives such as Terriers Night Out, Swipes for Boston and the ongoing textbook initiative as testaments to the progress SG has made throughout the year.
Akanni said e-board views their biggest accomplishments as the five slates running in the SG 2020 election, the 150 members involved in SG in the 2019-2020 academic year and consistent integration with other BU college governments through the CGPC. She also said involvement with other Boston schools through the Boston Intercollegiate Group is a testament to SG’s accomplishments.
Matthew Yee, a sophomore in CAS, said he appreciated seeing the range of initiatives the executive board has worked on this year.
“I think the e-board definitely came in trying to do a lot of things, but I think they’ve done a really good job putting everything together and have done a really good job getting a lot of initiatives started,” Yee said. “It was really nice to see them summarize all of their work and see the variety of stuff they have to work on.”
Senate voted to confirm Junia Janvier, a freshman in CAS, for director of city affairs. Janvier told senators she is passionate about connecting with non-profit organizations in Boston, and creating resources to bring these off-campus communities to BU students.
Collin McCormick, a junior in CAS and director of events, presented updates on the Bay State Block Party, a carnival hosted by SG that is currently planned for April 25 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
McCormick requested a budget of $8,000 to fund carnival events, food and BUPD security. The location of the event is not yet confirmed, though McCormick said possible options are Bay State Road itself, the parking lot behind CAS or the BU beach.
McCormick said in his presentation the block party may not be possible if Senate does not approve his full budget request.
“I’m asking for $8,000 and that is a lot of money, but this is also our only big university event,” McCormick said in the meeting. “We’re renting an entire carnival.”
Jonmichael Aracena, a junior senator in CAS, said in the meeting that he supports immediately approving McCormick’s budget request.
“I want to see him succeed, and I want to be able to give him the tools to succeed,” Aracena said. “We have the ability to do that right now, and I don’t think we should postpone giving that to him … All he’s asking for is money to guarantee that there could be a carnival.”
Senate voted to allot McCormick his full budget request of $8,000.
Yee said he has confidence that McCormick will be able to fulfill his plans for an end of year student event in lieu of a spring concert.
“I think it’s exciting. I think the spring concert last term was a really great way to get school spirit up, and if we can’t have a spring concert, then a block party is a wonderful alternative to it,” Yee said. “I am confident that [McCormick] will be able to work with the budget student government approves him.”
as an alum and a student employee with dining when I was a student I can tell you the block party won’t happen. About 2009 or so they were days away from the block party on Bay State Road. They were going to have it in the parking lot which is now where Marciano Commons stands. 48 before it was about to begin the University pulled the plug. They got worried and cancelled. They will do the same with this new attempt. Don’t let them stop you. Talk to dining about the block party plans, I think some managers still work there involved.