The Associated Student Government (ASG) had its first general assembly Aug. 22 with the appointment of two senators and the new press secretary. They also passed two bills during the meeting as well as moving a donation forward to the Fee Allocation Committee (FAC) and setting some new precedents for the year to come, including the Fee Reconciliation Committee (FRC) now auditing clubs on their spending.
The senate seat for Biological Science was filled by freshman Karson Fye who made the vote by a near unanimous approval. He was championed by the senate leader, Colton Rupple, who knew Fye from high school where he was in the NHS and was a captain of the soccer team.
The senate seat for Disabled Students was filled by Donovan Harwell. Harwell had run for Vice President last year against the current executive branch and lost. After an unanimous vote by the ASG, Harwell is now the senator for Disabled Students.
Celeste Martinez, previous Language, Literature and Mass Communications senator, was officially appointed to the position of Press Secretary. The position is being brought back to ASG under the Flores administration to better handle media relations.
The two bills proposed during the meeting were both accepted and voted into effect. The first, 18-01, allocated $969.99 from the ASG’s funds to purchase a new camera package.
The new camera will be used to record all the future meetings and is aimed towards providing more quality content for students to view.
The second bill was the Joint Resolution 1801 which approved the budgeting that had been allocated for the ASG’s spending for the year.
Chris DeLeon, editor in chief of The Criterion, made an appeal for $2,000 to be donated to the Hilltop Outreach Program through the Men In Heels race team he created. The race is a fundraiser for helping victims of domestic violence and the donation could spur a movement of support for the organization and raise awareness for the cause, especially if the student face of the university supports it.
The support for the donation was overwhelming from the ASG and some even suggested donating more. The donation was approved and will be moved to the FAC for further approval.
The Assembly Act was implemented during the meeting, making a semesterly Town Hall meeting mandatory of the ASG. It brought it down from two a semester to one. It was also announced that the FRC will begin auditing clubs that receive spending money from ASG.
Previously there have been clubs that had used the allocated resources meant for one specific line item on a separate line item that wasn’t approved. Now the FRC will be checking spending reports after approved trips to keep this from happening again.
