Saint Mary's student senate met Tuesday night to discuss a new amendment to the student government constitution and to establish the fiscal budget for the remainder of the school year.
The meeting was the first official Student Government Association (SGA) senate meeting of the year and was open to all students.
Student body president Kat Sullivan said this all-inclusive town-hall meeting encourages members of SGA, board members and students alike to come with questions and learn more about the future goals of the school year.
"My personal goal for this year is to get more people involved and aware of what our student government does," Sullivan said.
In attendance were representatives of each "big board" on campus, which includes the Student Diversities Board (SDB) president, Residence Hall Association (RHA) president and Student Activities Board (SAB) president. These representatives were joined by senators elected from each class, officers of SGA and ordinary students.
The meeting began with an introduction of each member of the senate board, when each member took the opportunity to share their personal and senate goals for the year.
Following introductions, student body vice president Maddy Martin proposed a new amendment to the SGA constitution related to the structure of the senate board.
"We are proposing the following structure because we want to add more voting and non-voting members to represent the Student Body in a more holistic manner," Martin said.
The new structure will include nine voting members, mostly members from SGA, and the rest of the senate will be made up of non-voting members from an assortment of programs on campus, including a representative for international students.
Vice president of external affairs and junior Kelly Gutrich said this way all students and their interests are represented equally in the senate's movements.
"With such a wide variety of student representatives in the senate, all of us can be informed with what each organization on campus is doing and what decisions have been made," Gutrich said.
Martin said the meetings would be run according to Robert's Rules, a set of rules containing guidelines for parliamentary order within the senate.
"Essentially it's a way to go about things in a proper manner and in a way that will make our senate be most effective," Martin said. "Starting next week, the agenda will start looking a little different because it will be in accordance with Robert's Rules procedures."
Martin and Sullivan said they hope the guidelines will encourage efficiency within the senate and uphold the traditions set in place by previous SGA officers.
The motion to approve the new amendment and abide by Robert's Rules was unanimously carried by the senate board members.
