The Student Government Association met Tuesday, Oct. 23 to clarify the details of the long debated House of Representatives proposal, and the legislative body was able to work out a compromise in the matter.

“We took all of your concerns into consideration, and we have finally reached a solution that we can all work with,” Vice President Hannah Petracca said.

The original House of Representatives proposal in September called for an addition to the student legislative body. Under the initiative proposed by Student Body President Hunter Barclay, representatives from the 200 student organizations on campus would have the option to participate in a House of Representatives, another legislative facet of the SGA. The original proposal would allow the House to initiate legislative and financial resolutions that the Senate members could vote on. The idea behind this initiative was to better engage organizations in student government and provide an additional step for organizations to gain funding from SGA.

“We have decided to do away with any Constitutional amendments, per your concerns last week,” Barclay said.

Opposition to the House of Representatives came to a headway last week, when Senators called for an executive session to discuss the future of the proposal without any pressures from press, the Barclay administration or advisers.

“We hear all of your opinions and we thank you, we have taken them all into consideration,” Barclay said.

The House of Representatives now stands as an executive committee rather than a legislative one. SGA has abandoned all constitutional amendment endeavors, and now proposes a panel for representatives of student organizations to voice the concerns for their own groups in a separate meeting.

Senators had questions about the dramatic shift in the proposal, which has been at the forefront of most SGA meetings.

“Will the House of Representatives have any legislative powers?” asked Senator Jeremiah Parlock, who was re-sworn into the student senate this meeting.

“No, the House of Representatives will take no power from the senate,” Petracca said.

The new executive committee will operate as a panel that organization representatives can participate in as they please. They will be involved with SGA, but as student leaders to voice concerns, not legislators.

“What’s the difference between this and the concerns of the student body we host at the end of senate meetings?” asked Senator Angel Wallace.

“Students that are a part of organizations will be able to be a part of this panel, where they will be able to hash out ideas and concerns in a meeting separate from our own,” Barclay said.

“This is different from concerns of the student body because it doesn’t cut into senate meetings at all and it isn’t squished in at the end when Senators are starting to leave for class. There’s no rush, and it’s a forum where organizations can have their voices heard in SGA,” Petracca said. “This idea is as new to you guys as it is to us, and we’re still trying to iron out the details. At the end of the day, we listened to your concerns, and we are still getting more students involved in SGA.”

The future of the House, now that it has been defined, will continue to be worked on and set up by SGA, who are due to discuss the semantics of the new panel in the coming weeks.

Hannah Graham can be contacted at [email protected].