Boca House of Representatives Legislative Update [March 23, 2012 Edition]
Here’s a breakdown of the last Boca House of Representatives meeting. This recap is brought to you by UP reporter Dylan Bouscher.
LEGISLATION
BRHB-12-04: “Florida Atlantic University 50th Anniversary Mascot Preservation” was tabled indefinitely. If passed, this bill would have given $15,000 to repair and display retro school mascots in the Student Union. It will not be brought up again.
BRHB-12-05: “Florida Caribbean Student Association Conference” did not pass after the House voted on it. The bill was written by Danielle Dingwall, Voshon Reid, and Boca Governor Ryan Ebanks. If passed, this bill would have allocated $4,550 for 90 members of FAU’s chapter to attend a convention of CSAs being hosted at FAU.
This is the first bill to fail in the BHOR this year, according to Boca House Speaker Boris Bastidas.
BRHB-12-06: “New Printer for Student Government” passed after the House voted on it. This bill allocates $14,746 for a new printer in the SG office. The bill was written and sponsored by Bastidas.
BRHB-12-07: “Don’t Stress out, Be in Zen Mode” was passed by the House and written by Ebanks, and the Boca Governor’s Chief of Staff Rebecca Capata. House Reps. John Maher, and Joe Kruempel sponsored the bill, which will transfer $9,915.02 to the Governor’s Project account to pay for yoga mats and sunglasses for Stress Week.
Yes, FAU students pay an A&S fee in their tuition for SG to spend their money on yoga mats and sunglasses.
OTHER NEWS
The Boca House passed a “vote of no confidence” against SG President Ayden Maher. They voted on this one day after the Broward House of Representatives passed a vote of no confidence, and a week after the Jupiter House passed its own vote of no confidence against the President. Maher has broken policies in the SG Constitution and Statutes by not attending Broward House meetings for the last nine months, four consecutive Boca House meetings, and one Senate meeting, according to Bastidas.
Maher showed up late to the meeting to defend himself. “I bust my ass for this university,” Maher said after justifying every absence and all other possible violations. Once Maher and other House reps left and the House voted on all legislation on the agenda, Campus Budget Chair Jason Wu made the motion for a vote of no confidence.While this vote holds no legislative weight, it could mean Maher is on his way to being impeached. However articles of impeachment have to be drafted by a member of the campus Houses or Senate. Then the articles must pass by a ⅔ majority in all the campus Houses (Boca, Broward, Jupiter, and Treasure Coast) and the University-wide Senate.
Since the Boca House and University-wide Senate both passed bills opposing A&S fee increases, SG Director Heather Bishara told the BHOR the committee which voted to recommend an increase would meet again on March 28 from 2-3 p.m. in the Majestic Palm Room.
Bishara also announced a follow-up meeting on April 4 from 2-3 p.m. to hold another vote on an increase recommendation. These meetings will be public, and all students are welcome to make suggestions about how A&S fee money should be spent if they start paying a higher fee.
This announcement was made after administrators in Student Affairs held a meeting with SG leaders and voted to recommend an A&S fee increase without telling anyone else.
Stay tuned to OwlWatch for more on Maher’s status and the public meetings to recommend A&S fee increases.
OwlWatch 
March 25, 2012 at 3:42 am
$14,746? Is that a misprint? What kind of a printer costs as much as a car? Because I’m looking at professional printers online here for a 10th of that price.
March 26, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Heather Bishara has facial hair.
Ryan Ebanks squeals like a girl.
Boris Bastidas sounds like he has marbles in his mouth.
Ayden Maher belongs at a community college.
March 27, 2012 at 3:05 am
Nice! Another tough talking person on these blogs who talks trash about people but does so with an anonymous name!….how pathetic…….I’m sorry I don’t sound clear to you, but hopefully the fact that this is typed can alleviate the marbles issue!
March 27, 2012 at 12:16 pm
You must love that FAU just blindly vote, you would never have got elected…
March 27, 2012 at 1:16 pm
I don’t love that “FAU blindly votes” in SG elections, only about 6-7 percent vote in the election for President, VP and Governor. We’ve actually had some pretty good people at those positions, but I agree that not enough students vote and those who win generally don’t really represent the entire student body as well as they could. Keep in mind though, Representatives are voted by the students, but the Speaker position is elected by the members of the House.
Again, I highly encourage you tough trash talkers to grow a pair and stop posting under anonymous names! Let’s face it, you people probably know me and know the people you are taking crap about, and you come on here and talk trash under anonymous names like this? Grow up!
March 30, 2012 at 2:09 pm
I also think fourteen grand for a printer is bullshit… can’t send students to conferences to further their networking options and career but we can waste forteen grand on a thosand dollar printer…?!??!?
March 30, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Let’s keep things civil boys and girls. The $14,000 printer is not just your run of the mill copy machine. SG plans on utilizing this printer to lower printing costs that Toshiba charges for flyers and posters, effectively paying itself off within the next two or three years. I personally would love to fund students to go to conferences, but the fact remains that we have a limited budget and hundreds of organizations that would clamor to have their trip fully funded by SG, However, there are other agencies within Student Government that can be utilized to subsidize the costs of going to a conference outside of FAU (such as the travel committee).
March 31, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Student government spending money on a printer for student government to tell students more about student government?
April 10, 2012 at 6:07 am
The thing about SG that people often overlook is the fact that other entities within the school such as MP, COSO, etc are all a part of SG. So the printer may be utilized by other SG organizations and members to not only promote more student participation in SG and its organizations, but opportunities to experience the amenities and events that FAU has to offer to its students.