Bound for Richmond

February 5, 2009 • By Megan Williams, The Breeze
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SGA seeks legislative reform in jury duty for college students

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Twenty-four members of the Student Government Association will make their annual trip to the state capitol next Tuesday to lobby for state bills that will affect college students.

“Talking to senators and delegates about issues that JMU students are passionate about will hopefully sway their opinions,” said senior Caitlin Briska, the legislative action committee chair.

Briska attended the lobbying trip last year and said that the delegates and senators they spoke with were very receptive. Some of the issues they lobbied for involved college affordability and absentee ballot reform. No obvious results were seen, but students’ thoughts were heard.

The SGA senate passed three lobbying bills during Tuesday night’s meeting concerning the Virginia House Bills. The first of which, if passed, would exempt college students from jury duty if they were summoned somewhere more than 50 miles away.

The second would allow college students to register to vote in their college town and be considered residents there. While students attempted to do this for the presidential election, many had their applications denied and were unable to vote. The bill would allow students to avoid the application hang-up.

The final bill would give grants to college students who graduate in three years or less, then go to graduate school and upon graduating seek employment for three years in Virginia.

The group of SGA members will leave Harrisonburg on Monday, spend all day Tuesday in Richmond and then return home that evening.

UNDER INVESTIGATION
Sen. Dallas Lee will be tried before the senate on Feb. 17 for exceeding the four unexcused absence limit stated in the SGA Constitution.

Lee, a senator representing the student body at large, presented her arguments against her absences to the Communications and Internal Affairs Committee via e-mail on Jan. 26. The committee voted unanimously, 7-0 (one committee member was absent), to continue with impeachment hearings, having found her arguments inadequate.

“It’s my own fault,” Lee said. “I never took the initiative to find the person to talk to, to get them excused.”
Lee was not present at Tuesday’s senate meeting.

“Maybe my heart’s not in it,” Lee said Tuesday evening by phone. “Maybe I shouldn’t be in senate at all.”
Committee chair Sen. John Scott presented an impeachment petition to the senate on Tuesday, which was seconded. The petition will sit for two weeks before Lee’s trial.

According to Scott, the representative of the College of Science and Math, no senator has ever been fully impeached from the organization as long as he’s been a part of it, since February last year.

Senior Matthew Jones, the only senator for the College of Visual and Performing Arts, is also now being investigated for unexcused absences from senate meetings.

Jones, a music major, said he intends to resign from SGA after four years with the organization.

“My major has become conflicting with meetings,” Jones said. “Music isn’t a major that meshes well with SGA. They seem to be enforcing the attendance policy more.”

AMETHYST INITIATIVE
A bill of opinion was presented to the Senate asking administrators to reconsider signing the Amethyst Initiative, which President Rose refused to sign earlier this year.

The Initiative, signed by more than 100 university presidents throughout the country, would ask lawmakers to discuss the drinking age and consider lowering it. Six Virginia college presidents have signed, including Virginia Tech’s Charles W. Steger.

The bill submitted by Sen. Scott received the required 200 signatures to be presented to the Senate. Having been seconded Tuesday night, the bill will now require 10 percent of student signatures, two-thirds majority vote by the Senate and a majority vote by the executive council, which is made up of the SGA president, vice presidents of administrative affairs and student affairs and the treasurer, before going to the Faculty Senate for consideration.

During debate, Sen. Mallory Micetich (College of Arts and Letters), among others, voiced her opinion that college drinking is a big problem and needs to be addressed by JMU administrators.
A bill of opinion alerts the administration to an issue that a large number of JMU students feel passionate about.
While it is just a suggestion to administrators, it is taken into consideration.

Contingency requests
Groups that requested money included InterVarsity and Catholic Campus Ministries, each for $2,340, the Vietnamese Student Association and the Latino Student Alliance each for $2,000.
Contingency money is funds left over after non-front end budget groups have received their money. FEB groups are those that have a wide impact on campus life (UPB, Student Ambassadors and others) and are given larger sums of money.

The contingency bills will be voted on by the senate at next Tuesday’s meeting.

Contact Megan Williams at breezearts@gmail.com

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One Response to “Bound for Richmond”

Choose Responsibility Blog » Blog Archive » [CR] Week in Review on February 6th, 2009 1:52 pm

[...] at Eastern Kentucky University. We’ve also received word that the student governments at James Madison University and Clarkson University are considering bills in favor of the Amethyst Initiative. Clearly, the [...]

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