Wrapping up some unfinished business, Student Senate passed two resolutions and a constitutional amendment in its final meeting before fall break Wednesday.
The Senate first passed a resolution proposed by Senate Social Concerns Committee chair Michelle Byrne that called for allowing students to make charitable donations to clubs using Domer Dollars. The resolution passed by a vote of 26 to 1.
To facilitate this, student government will be forced to purchase an ID card swiper, which can cost up $3,500. But Byrne said she was exploring purchasing an old swiper from Food Services or the Career Center.
"We're looking into using some money from the technology fund," Byrne said.
Senate also passed a resolution commending the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for its work on the transition to Google Mail from the old WebMail system.
"We're thanking OIT for going through the WebMail transition helping students get some new applications to communicate," Senate Technology Committee chair Devin Fee said.
The resolution passed by a vote of 26 to 1, with Cavanaugh senator Robin Link casting the one dissenting vote.
"These kinds of resolutions are just a waste of time," Link said.
But student body vice president Grant Schmidt said the resolution was a nice way of thanking OIT for their work.
"This is a formal way of appreciating the work they did," Schmidt said.
Senate Academics Committee chair Ryan Brellenthin agreed, saying the resolution will help strengthen the working relationship between student government and OIT.
"By doing this it encourages [OIT] to keep working with us," Brellenthin said.
Continuing his crusade to clean up and organize the student government constitution, Senate Oversight Committee chair Ian Secviar proposed grouping the awards given by student government - the Irish Clover Award and the Michael J. Palumbo Award - under the same article. The amendment to the constitution passed unanimously.
In other Senate news:
uSchmidt handed out copies of University President Fr. John Jenkins' recent address to the faculty and asked the senators to read the address within the next three weeks to be prepared to discuss it in Senate.
uKnott senator Greg Salter said he was giving a resolution to the Oversight Committee for review which would examine the constitutional stipulation that states "no person may simultaneously hold more than one office enumerated in this Constitution."
Salter's proposal would allow this clause to be suspended in specific cases by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
Salter said Knott Hall president Matt Barloh, who led the dorm to Hall of the Year honors last year, was being forced to resign his presidency to become president of The Shirt Project. Salter said Barloh's resignation would be a major loss for the dorm.
"None of us want to see him have to stand down because he's doing such great things for the dorm," Salter said. "We think it should be in our hands to decide whether or not he's still capable."
