The first Student Government Association meeting began in new chambers with the induction of eight new members.

To teach the new members how to appropriately debate a topic and identify the proper structure of a piece of legislation, the Speaker of the Senate, Jay Todd Richey, authored a fake resolution titled “Establish a mandatory daily offering by all students to a statue of President Gary Ransdell.” 

Richey purposely filled the resolution with errors such as grammar mistakes and asked the senators to take a stance on replacing the centennial mall statue with a “really tall” statue of Gary Ransdell. The resolution would force students to present offerings to the statue daily.

There are new chairmen residing on the SGA committees: Josh Knight for Academic Affairs, Kasey Glasgow for Student Affairs, James Line for Public Relations, Paige Settles for Legislative Research and Tyler Scaff for Campus Improvement. 

Various SGA officials said SGA plans to tackle several issues this year, such as parking and transportation, campus cleanup and student participation in campus organizations. 

Bill 1-14-F, which addresses funding for the Preston membership voucher program, is scheduled for discussion during next Tuesday’s meeting. 

If this bill were to pass, 60 part-time students could obtain a voucher that pays for half of the semester membership fee at Preston. 

SGA President Nicki Seay said she looks forward to the upcoming meetings.

“So far, we’ve got a good group of people,” she said. “We’re really excited to be altogether now in our new place. I’m expecting good things to happen because of our good leadership and I’m hoping it all trickles down from there.”

For more coverage, pick up the Sept. 4 edition of the Herald.