Student Government (SG) convened to outline bylaws, Robert’s Rules, appointments, committees and Pawprints at their Sept. 4 meeting.
Bylaws, Robert’s Rules and Appointments Overview
Director of Elections Joshua Anderson provided an introductory look at bylaws, Robert’s Rules and appointments; practices that he noted new SG members are likely unfamiliar with.
Anderson explained that bylaws exist to keep SG “in check.” He showed new SG members how to locate the SG bylaws.
According to Anderson, changes to the bylaws occur in four steps. First, a change will be proposed and discussed during a senate meeting. Then, the change will be discussed among cabinet members, senators and committee chairs individually. Next, the proposed changes are presented at the Representative Student Organization (RSO) roundtable, where a majority vote will determine if it is brought back to a senate meeting. At the senate meeting, members will vote on whether the proposed change will be implemented. If the majority votes in favor of the change, then it will take effect immediately.
In addition to serving as the Director of Elections, Anderson is SG’s Parliamentarian, meaning that he is responsible for ensuring that members follow parliamentary procedures. He provided a short overview of parliamentary procedure, including how to make motions, vote and respectfully ask questions.
Anderson also gave a quick explanation of the process of appointing new members. According to Anderson, each candidate is given two minutes to speak and then can answer two questions from the floor. After each candidate for a given role has spoken, SG proceeds to a closed ballot vote.
Committees Overview
Jameson Baker, Director of Student Relations, presented an overview of committees. SG committees are “an internal arm on the executive branch of SG.” They consist of an SG-appointed committee chair, a minimum of two SG senators, an RIT pro-staff member and RIT students.
Current committees include Academics & Co-Ops, Dining, Clubs, Policy & Wellbeing, Facilities and Parking, Transportation, & Outdoor Spaces.
Pawprints
Director of Student Relations Jameson Baker outlined this week’s Pawprints.
“Remove AI Ads From Campus” and “Continue the weekly/daily vendors in the SAU” were charged to the Clubs, Policy & Wellbeing Committee.
“Keep the Hub Express Open.” was charged to the Facilities Committee, which did not have a Committee Chair at the time. As of SG’s Sept. 11 meeting, there is now a Facilities Committee Chair.
Bylaw Amendments
SG President, Yasmine Ibrahim, outlined proposed bylaw changes. Ibrahim proposed revisions to clarify the bylaws surrounding Student Advisory Boards (SABs).
Another proposed change would make formal expectation documents optional for appointed positions. Ibrahim explained that removing the requirement from bylaws allows for more flexibility during the onboarding process.
Ibrahim also proposed to establish bylaws about AdHoc committees, or temporary committees “established for the purpose of completing a project.”
One prospective change is to list all recognized Representative Student Organizations (RSOs) in the section of bylaws about RSOs.
Lastly, Ibrahim proposed a revision to allow transfer students to be appointed as Committee Chairs. Students are only eligible for appointed positions once they have completed two semesters at RIT. This edit would create an exception for transfer students, allowing them to be appointed as Committee Chairs. According to Ibrahim, this is because Committee Chair positions do not require “RIT-specific” knowledge.
The meeting concluded after about an hour.
