The Tartan

Last week’s Undergraduate Student Senate General Body Meeting dealt with the aftermath of last week’s vote against J.24.02, an amendment that would have reclassified the University’s Activities Board (AB) as a student organization rather than a standing committee. This would have removed some of AB’s power as an organization, but supporters argued that it would provide room for some much needed oversight and simplicity.

After the amendment failed in a 20-7 vote, a new amendment called J.24.03 was introduced, intending to pick up the pieces of J.24.02 for review.

One of the main points in support of the amendment was that AB does not have an official external budget policy, which makes dealing with monetary mismanagement in the current system difficult.

Historically, AB devises a budget internally and then sends it to the Student Leadership Council (SLC) for review.

Then, at a Joint Ratification Meeting (JRM), other groups such as the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) give their opinions on the budget, and then it is put to a vote. Many consider it to be a complex process, so one of the goals of this new amendment is to introduce protection of the budget.

AB already has an internal fiscal policy, but outside of the committee they are still subject to review.

The amendment also would demand more consistent dialogue between student committees. Better lines of communication would make different groups aware of what others are discussing during their meetings and lead to more aligned goals and unity. A couple of ideas have been discussed about how this goal might be achieved, including having members of Undergraduate Student Senate attend other organizations’ meetings liaisons.

Another idea from the meeting involved restructuring meetings altogether in a way that involved the JFC (Joint Funding Committee). Most of these groups are subject to the JFC, so having an open and direct dialogue between them all could grant clarity to the desires of each committee.

The primary issue that all of these discussions aimed to address was that the University’s current systems had, according to many, become subject to too many complications for student committees, with funding for different groups coming from different places and being held to different classifications and rules. J.24.03 is intended to be a step in addressing these issues.

Undergraduate Student Senate also discussed concerns about upcoming student elections. Last year, student elections saw a voter turnout of 3 percent of undergraduate students, with just 3 votes total being submitted on paper.

This is a large increase from last year, which saw about 2 percent of students’ vote. With old voter turnouts from years ago being as high as 30 percent, Undergraduate Student Senate chalked it up to lack of communication and lack of care from undergraduate students about their university.

The Undergraduate Student Senate is considering tabling in the Cohon University Center and providing food and “I Voted” stickers for those who vote to increase turnout. They also may open more in-person voting locations, adjusting for last year’s low voter turnout.

They also considered creating an Instagram page as a “hub of information,” but senators were concerned about the overlap with Student Leadership, Involvement, and Civic Engagement (SLICE) and LifeAtCMU’s Instagram pages.

During finals week of last year, Undergraduate Student Senate brought food trucks to Carnegie Mellon campus, which were received enthusiastically by students. This year, Undergraduate Student Senate wants to bring this event back, and it is also considering providing more food at their event.

This is all part of an effort by Undergraduate Student Senate to enter the general consciousness of the University’s student body and to get students more involved in university affairs.

Additionally, Undergraduate Student Senate was contacted by Mt. Lebanon High School to take part in a Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils (PASC) meeting with student council members of high schools across the state to help them figure out how they can make a difference while in high school and continue their involvement in student government in the future.