Legislative Update [May 28, 2010 Edition]

Five items were brought before the House this meeting, and you can click the number for the full text-as-submitted (not as amended or passed, although I can get those for anyone interested):

• BRHR 10-06 “Library Renovation”
• BRHR 10-07 “FAU Baseball: The students congratulate you on making history”
• BRHR 10-08 “Let’s update our website!”
• BRHR 10-09 “Free speech on campus”
• BRHB 10-22 “Last minute spending”

For those not familiar with the distinction between resolutions (“Rs”) and bills (“Bs”), the former are public statements of opinion or calls for action. The latter are legally binding decisions, usually involving money. They’re numbered separately, so you can see that this year more bills (22) have been considered than resolutions (9), even though this meeting was heavy on resolutions, 4-to-1.

The Boca campus all-night study area is on the first and second floors of the library expansion that opened in 2007. (Photo courtesy of FAU)

Items marked in green passed, items marked in yellow were tabled for further consideration, and items marked in red will, predictably, mean failed legislation. None failed this day.

BRHR 10-06 was in support of “restoration and renovation” of the all-night study area on campus. No funding was committed for the project, but suggested improvements include a “re-decorated balcony” and fixed and/or relocated power outlets.

John McCormack became head coach for FAU baseball in 2008, but has been with the team for almost 20 years total. (Photo courtesy of FAU)

BRHR 10-07 explains itself; it’s a congratulatory statement to the team and head coach John McCormack for rocking FIU and the season. Although I didn’t know it at the time or I would’ve brought it up, they spelled his name wrong, and I’m not sure if that was one of many amendments to the resolution. Whoops.

BRHR 10-08 also explains itself mostly, calling for a more useful SG website. The current one is here and still lists: last year’s president, election forms from over a year ago, an “upcoming events” list a year out of date, and meeting minutes from last year — and not even many of those, actually. (Happily, it also still lists the UP adviser as Michael Koretzky and Owl TV’s as Pete Montalbano.)

Be sure to attend the "Weeks of Welcome" starting August 20 ... of 2009.

I found this whereas clause justifying the legislation particularly amusing:

“WHEREAS: House Representatives take great interest in staying up-to-date on the latest events within Student Government…”

If you’re in SG and don’t know any of the latest events, then I’m not sure how your 28,000 constituents will. Updating the website is a great idea, but I’m not sure the best reason to do it is for SG to be informed of itself…

BRHR 10-09 was, as mentioned yesterday, in support of student media after our advisers were fired. The authors did some heavy duty citing of state law and Supreme Court decisions to stick under Student Affairs noses.

First, they debated the wording, which “requests that the university administration abide” by the law; some thought “abide” was too harsh a word, and maybe “acknowledge” would be more appropriate, even though it already says “requests.” A motion was made to make this change, and that passed.

Then there was a motion to table the bill and send it to committee, which failed.

Then there was a motion to read the bill aloud, which passed.

Then there was a pro-con debate.

Then they made a second motion to send it to committee, after spending the better part of half an hour voting, re-voting, and debating it. This time, it passed, and they moved on.

BRHB 10-22 was the shortest piece of legislation to consider, one of the most important, and passed without any fuss. It called for moving “roughly $18,000” from the House contingency account to the Speaker’s projects account.

This does two things: prevents the students’ money from being dumped in a few weeks into an account SG has no access to, and instead puts it squarely in the hands of Speaker Pollock. The vote to do so was unanimous, and Pollock thanked the House for their trust in handing him the money, which he said he’s still deciding on how to spend. He added that he’s open to suggestions, so feel free to e-mail him some at apolloc3@fau.edu.

Thursday: How’s our new president doing?