Video shot and edited by Michael Herrera

UPDATE – 7/16/15 at 4:57 p.m.

Elections Commissioner Brad Johnson proposed new elections and campaigning rules. Johnson said he wants students to be more involved in Student Government.

“We tend to breed complacency by becoming lackadaisical in the way we approach students or becoming lackadaisical in the way that we pass bills,” Johnson said.

The revisions include regulations and limits for party names to promote competition and reduce complacency within the student body, such as party names being retired after two years. The Government Oversight Committee (GOC) unanimously approved the edits, 3-0-0.

The Budget and Allocations Committee (BAC) of two voting members passed a $120,000 special request from Osprey Productions (OP) to book a comedian for the Homecoming comedy show. OP’s External Assistant Director Tia Wrigley said SG covered the entertainer’s cost before.

“We’ve been doing this for over a decade,” Wrigley said. “It’s a tradition, it’s something anyone can attend. It doesn’t matter if you are a future Osprey, it doesn’t matter if you’re a past Osprey, or you’re a current Osprey. Anyone can attend the UNF Comedy Show.”

But former Treasurer Morgan Wolf cut Homecoming’s entertainer line item from the Activity and Service (A&S) fee budget this past Spring. Last year’s comedy show was mostly funded by a $50,000 budget line and $40,000 special request. Regarding the cut of the former, Wolf said OP could make a special request for the funds, and increased the Special Requests budget by $75,000.

“We were zero-lined, it’s as simple as that,” Wrigley said. “There was no money given for a Homecoming comedy show this year.”

Wrigley said the line was unfunded because there was no leader in place to organize the comedy show. OP was pushed to make a special request to get the funding they need.

Wrigley said over 4,500 students and alumni attended the comedy show last year, and OP raised over $69,000 from the event. The BAC approved the request, 2-0-0.

The Constitutions and Statutes Committee (CSC) discussed refining rules concerning SG member absence points. CSC Chair Caleb Grantham said his revisions to absence rules would give senators options to keep their Senate seats. The CSC approved the changes unanimously 3-0-0, with Senate to review more changes on July 20.

“Like I said when I first got into Senate, I had been reading the constitution, it was riddled with errors typos and grammatical mistakes,” Daniels said. “So, I commend Senator Grantham for fixing these and this needs to be done.”

The University and Student Affairs Committee (USAC) discussed improvements to the Osprey Voice survey, but had no bills or measures to vote on. The USAC went over how to phrase questions better in the Osprey Voice survey to get more accurate results. Senate President Chase Baker said they should not be using “yes or no” questions in their surveys.

The Senate will vote on committee actions July 20.

Student Government (SG) senators met in four committee meetings July 13. One senator was pulled from her meeting so another committee would have enough members to review a $120,000 request.

The Government Oversight Committee’s (GOC) four voting members forwarded students Jean Lipsky, Warren Butler and Melissa Ozdemir for Senate seat approval on July 20. Chase Baker, the Senate president, then pulled Senator Paola Lorenzo from the GOC meeting to establish a quorum of two members for the Budget and Allocations Committee (BAC) meeting. This was the minimum number of senators needed to hold the meeting.

The three remaining GOC members unanimously approved new elections and campaigning rules, proposed by Elections Commissioner Brad Johnson. The revisions include regulations and limits for party names to promote competition and reduce complacency within the student body, such as party names being retired after two years.

The two BAC members passed a $120,000 special request from Osprey Productions (OP) for its Homecoming comedy show. The request will be presented to Senate for approval on July 20.

The BAC also approved a special request of $28,770 in OPS wages for a student advocate position, five OP coordinators and two Club Alliance coordinators.

The Constitution and Statutes Committee’s (CSC) three voting members refined some of the rules concerning SG member absence points. The CSC approved the changes unanimously 3-0-0.

The University and Student Affairs Committee (USAC) discussed improvements to the Osprey Voice survey, but had no bills or measures to vote on. Student Advocate Connor Klein said he has been working with ACE Tutoring to provide tutoring options in the Carpenter Library. Klein presented potential Osprey Voice questions to the USAC for improvements.

The USAC went over how to phrase questions better in the Osprey Voice survey to get more accurate results.

Spinnaker will provide more detailed coverage in a follow-up to this brief.

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