SG BEAT REPORTER
Student Government passed several significant bills at its legislature meeting Tuesday night, including a measure that will allow two faculty members to sit in on Honor Council deliberations and the Student Budget Advisory Committee budget for next year.
The legislature passed the Honor Council Deliberations Bill, which was proposed by the Judiciary Committee. This bill responded to the complaint in the discussion paper, "The State of the Honor System at Wake Forest" that "the difficulties in group process/deliberations are aggravated by the lack of faculty adviser input."
The new bill will allow two faculty members to be present at Honor Council hearings. The advisers will not be permitted to vote, however. Representatives from the Honor Council said that the bill will go into effect immediately, but there will be an honor code orientation to acquaint faculty with the system.
Members from the Honor Council also said that the new policy should help to alleviate some of the tension between the faculty and the Honor Council and to restore faculty faith in the system.
In addition, the legislature passed the SBAC Recommendation Bill.
SBAC made the recommendation that $333,801.50 be allocated to the 37 chartered organizations that requested funding. The SBAC was able to trim the requests of organizations by nearly $40,000.
Senior Graham Goodrich, the chairman of SBAC, said that his committee had completed a very thorough and efficient deliberation of the recommended funds.
He also said that the general reaction of the chartered organizations to the recommendations has been positive, as only 10 organizations made appeals.
In other business, legislators argued about a bill proposed by the Appropriations and Budget Committee that would appropriate $2,000 in funds to the Mortar Board organization.
Mortar Board came before the Appropriations and Budget Committee this year to request financial assistance so that it could pay to ship approximately 600 pounds in used books to a needy university in Pakistan. Due to a lack of consensus, the legislature was forced to table the bill, or delay the passage or veto of the bill until a further point in time, when more discussion and consideration has taken place.
Sophomore Will Ashworth, a member of the legislature, said, "I feel that the bill deserves consideration, however I think that tabling the bill was the right decision, because it will give us time to reconsider it and decide whether it needs to be amended."
Many members of the legislature felt that $2000 was an exorbitant sum to commission to a largely unheard of organization. The Mortar Board organization is a senior honor society of 26 students. Members of the organization are pledged to exhibit service, scholarship and leadership.
The book drive is part of the group's service project for this year. A member formulated the idea after visiting a university in Pakistan this summer and observing the minimal resources that the university library contained.
Since then, Mortar Board has collected 200 pounds of books to ship to Pakistan. The problem, however, is locating the funds to ship these books.
With the $2000 that the Appropriations and Budget Committee would allot to them, Mortar Board could afford to send these books plus the 400 pounds of books that they hope to collect from students and faculty.
Sophomore David Slade, a member of the legislature said Mortar Board should make every possible attempt to raise money on their own, and then appeal to the Student Government for funding.
"I think that Mortar Board is making a great effort to help a needy cause, however I would feel more comfortable talking to my constituents before voting for the bill," Slade said.
Senior Heather Nunez, the treasurer of the Mortar Board organization, was present during the debate over the bill to explain the project and answer any questions from the legislature.
Despite the fact that the SG has tabled the bill, her group is determined to carry out their project, Nunez said.
"This project is very important to the students in Mortar Board, and we will do whatever we can to obtain the money that we need," Nunez said.
The contingency fund was established to fund groups in times of emergency -- when they themselves cannot provide the assets that they need, according to the Appropriations and Budget Committee.
According to members of Mortar Board, last year's membership left them minimal funds. The money from the contingency fund would allow them to send the books to Pakistan at a much earlier date than if they were to rely solely on fund-raising projects.
In addition, the legislature passed a bill that recommends that the Student Life Committee and the faculty grant a charter to the Community Development Task Force.
The purpose of this task force is to build a stronger community between the faculty, administration, students and residents of Winston-Salem through programs and campus activities.