The Student Government Association passed a resolution on adopting amendments to the constitution and bylaws, with the exception of a bylaw that would have made SGA members ineligible for SGA-sponsored scholarships at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Cain Alvey, administrative vice president, said SGA executives have been discussing changes to the constitution for two to three years now.

“We just thought that now would be the best time to do it,” Alvey said.

After SGA executives went through the constitution one article and bylaw at a time, they decided what would be most constructive to change. The changes were first introduced to the senate on Feb. 19.

Alvey personally likes the amendment that allows for representation from the regional campuses, such as Glasgow and Owensboro.

“Because of this amendment, students from all the regional campuses will have some kind of guaranteed representation in SGA,” he said.

Currently, SGA senate members represent their class, whether it be freshman, sophomore, junior or senior. With the recent changes, SGA senators will now represent each college.

“So we will have a Potter College representative rather than a sophomore class rep,” Alvey said.

Among the changes proposed was a bylaw that would indefinitely revoke SGA members’ eligibility to compete for SGA-sponsored scholarships.

Alvey explained that he has a neutral stance on this bylaw.

“I can see both sides of the argument,” Alvey said.

He said one side of the argument involves a conflict of interest, with SGA members being eligible for grants and scholarships sponsored by their own organization.

The other side of the argument is that senators are students as well, and they should be eligible just like any other WKU student.

Christopher Costa, speaker of the senate, said that as speaker, he has to remain neutral and couldn’t give an opinion about the changes made.

But he said he thinks it was clear how the students felt about the section they didn’t pass regarding eligibility for scholarships.

“I think it was made clear from the students who objected to it that they felt it would…unduly burden SGA members,” he said. “I think it was also mentioned by a senator that it would discourage people from running for senate seats. So those were a couple of reasons given.”

Keyana Boka, executive vice president, said she feels that the senators didn’t agree with the bylaw because of the fact that once passed, it would be unchangeable.

“It was so very permanent, so I think that added to the opposition,” Boka said.

Boka also said she agrees with the changes that were passed.

“It made the constitution more efficient,” Boka said.