Members of the Student Government Senate met on Oct. 11 to elect a pro tempore and University Budget Appropriation Committee (UBAC) chairs. During the meeting, the senators discussed the possibility of changing their meetings to biweekly instead of monthly and the importance of student feedback.

Pro Tempore Election

Senators Jonathan Gloria and Jaylene Kennedy self-nominated themselves for the position of Senate pro tempore. The pro tempore is responsible for taking the student body vice president’s role in the Senate if that person is absent for a meeting.

Gloria spoke to his fellow senators for about two minutes about why he should be elected.

“I nominated myself because no one else did at first,” he said. “I work with full transparency and openness.” 

Gloria said that he is always present for students and wants to establish more legislation in the coming months.

Kennedy then took the floor to advocate for herself.

“I’ve shown dedication in the past and I’ll continue to in the present whether I get this position or not,” she said. “It’s bigger than us. This is for the university.”

Kennedy stated that she had issues with the way Student Government structured the Senate last year and wants to increase Senate participation and communication.

The senators elected Kennedy 4-0 and the student body vice president, Lily MacDonald, inaugurated her. 

UBAC Chairs Election

Ari Aviles, Jonathan Gloria, and Kaila Palmer were nominated for UBAC chairs for their respective campuses. 

The UBAC is made up of students that allocate the university-wide budget, including campus-specific allocations. 

UBAC chairs are responsible for representing their respective campuses at budget meetings.

Since each of the nominees ran unopposed, they did not speak to the Senate as to why they should be elected. 

The Senate elected Aviles as the Jupiter UBAC chair, Gloria as the Broward chair, and Palmer as the Boca Raton chair.

General Business

The senate allocated time for Maxwell Simonson, the student body president to speak, but he did not attend. He sent his executive assistant, Jordan Reed, in his place. Reed informed the Senate that Simonson was attending a funeral.

MacDonald then told the Senate that she presented her initiative to get bicycles and scooters on campus for student use to administration. She stated that it is now awaiting feedback.

MacDonald also spoke about wanting to hear more student feedback about what they want to see from Student Government. She mentioned possibly utilizing polls on Owl Central to obtain student feedback.

The senators presented the idea of meeting biweekly but did not decide to change the meeting times.

Gloria mentioned that he needs sponsorship on legislation that he is working on, such as updating the Broward Student Union and transforming existing solar panels into an art piece.

He also wanted to question Simonson about his performance but chose not to because the student body president was not present. 

Lastly, Aviles urged his fellow senators to be present on campus and truly represent the student body daily.

Kendall Little is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet her @klittlewrites.