Marshall University’s Student Government Association had their weekly senate meeting Tuesday, Sept. 11, in the Shawkey Dining Hall. The meeting consisted of student senators and was open to the public. Vice President Hannah Petracca served as the presiding officer over the meeting.

The meeting started with a moment of silence to honor lives lost in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. From there, the legislators moved to new business. Andy Hermansdorfer, director of student involvement and leadership, was approved to be Senate Adviser in a unanimous vote. Several senate bills were moved to the finance committee in order to be approved or denied for funding.

President Hunter Barclay encouraged senators to participate in the 9/11 Remembrance Walk to Spring Hill Cemetery at 5:30 after the meeting. He also brought up the Jenkins Hall survey that was generated by the Student Government Association and reminded senators to spread the word about it.

“The survey can be found on a Twitter page and also on the website,” Barclay said. “I encourage you to please fill out the survey and pass it along to your fellow students, it’s really important for you to express your opinions. We really want your ideas for any alternative names for the building, and we just really want your feedback on it.”

Barclay said he and Petracca were taking all the previously given feedback of the House of Representatives proposal into consideration and plan to be at the next senate meeting with an outline for a constitutional amendment and a timeline to be discussed.

Barclay said they are also still discussing affordable textbook options with President Jerome Gilbert and the upper administration in order to come to a consensus. Petracca and Barclay plan to propose a ‘textbook menu’ professors can look through and choose from. They plan to seek approval from Gilbert early next week.

Next, Petracca gave words of encouragement and a reminder to maintain decorum even when proposals are on the floor that individuals do not necessarily agree with.

“We are a team and we need to be a unit, and we need to be supportive of everyone who has the floor,” Petracca said.

Financial Funding Application training at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12 is an event organized by SGA in order to help equip senators and apprentices with more valuable information on how the funding process within Student Senate works.

Hermansdorfer said the meeting is important for student legislators.

“When students come to you and ask you about the funding process, I want you to understand it,” Hermansdorfer said. “I want you to understand that students who apply for funding can see that entire process visually, from first reading on. So, I encourage you to come to the meeting if you can.”

At the meeting, Senator Jacob Gressang spoke of his proposal and request for help drafting a resolution.

“Every year, Housing and Residence Life goes through a construction period in which they have to conduct inspections,” Gressang said. “When they inspect furniture, even if the furniture is a little bit dented, or a mattress has a stain on it, that furniture has to go directly to a landfill. There are a lot of homeless shelters that could use these mattresses and materials that we would otherwise throw away.”

Gressang said there would be a lot of specifics that go into what would and would not be able to be donated, and the semantics would have to be discussed in order for any piece of legislation to be drafted. There are plans to develop this idea further in future senate meetings.

Next week’s Student Government Association Senate meeting will be at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18th. Meetings are open to students to voice their concerns or advocate for organizational funding.

Hannah Graham can be contacted at [email protected].