Syracuse University’s Student Association on Monday introduced a bill that would allow the organization to vote on finance bills via email when the assembly is unable to meet or cannot make quorum at meetings.

At its meeting Monday evening in Maxwell Auditorium, SA also elected new assembly members and SA President Eric Evangelista gave brief updates on initiatives.

SA Parliamentarian Jack Harding introduced Bill 60.01, “Electronic Vote on Finance Bills,” to the assembly. A vote on the bill was postponed because SA hasn’t yet determined how it would facilitate discussion via email, Harding said during the meeting.

If passed, the bill would allow SA assembly members to vote on “time sensitive” finance bills when SA does not make quorum at its weekly meeting or if SA cannot meet due to other circumstances, such as holidays. The votes would be sent to SA Comptroller Malik Evans, who would also determine which bills qualify as time sensitive. The number of votes via email would need to meet quorum, Harding said.

The introduction of the bill came a week after SA was forced to cancel a meeting because the assembly failed to make quorum.

“It’s going to be the only time we can do electronic communication,” Harding said. “It’s just going to solve the problem of, like last week, where when we don’t have enough people in the assembly … that we can still do our job.”

Also at Monday’s meeting, Evangelista briefly addressed the assembly. He said SA is working to solidify a congressional debate to be held at SU this fall between incumbent Republican Rep. John Katko and Democrat Colleen Deacon. The two are facing off to represent New York’s 24th district in the United States House of Representatives. The district includes Onondaga County, where Syracuse is located.

Vice President Joyce LaLonde was not at Monday’s meeting due to an illness, but Evangelista said LaLonde will provide information on the future of the recently-launched bike share program at next week’s meeting.

Additionally, the assembly elected a number of new assembly representatives for various schools and colleges during Monday’s meeting.

To represent the College of Arts and Sciences, the assembly elected: Ladin Bacakoglu, a freshman political science major; Nate Birnbaum, a senior policy studies major; Sophia Faram, a sophomore international relations major; Nick Hui, a sophomore economics major; Marcus Lane, a sophomore policy studies major; Dominika Peko, a sophomore policy studies major; and Andrew Regalado, a freshman political science major.

In uncontested elections, the assembly elected Caroline Bauman — a sophomore music industry major — to represent the College of Visual and Performing Arts, as well as Matt Deeb — a junior dual major in the School of Information Studies and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management — to represent the Whitman School.

Other business discussed Monday:

Funding for Fetty Wap
The Student Association Finance Board decided not to return the money to University Union that would have been spent on rapper Fetty Wap, the headlining artist for Juice Jam who did not show up to the concert. Instead, the Finance Board will keep the money and use it for other purposes, said Evans, the comptroller.

Published on September 26, 2016 at 11:40 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu