The Student Government Association is well on their way to filling all of the empty senator seats and increasing retention among students, as of their second senate meeting on Thursday, Sept. 21.
SGA accepted the appointment of seven new senators, two senators-at-large, a justice, the athletic liaison and the speaker of the senate. There were also two other appointments set for tonight for a senator-at-large position and a justice position, however those two people did not show up to be sworn in. The body only had to accept one resignation tonight and no reason was presented to the senate as to why Preston Carter stepped down from his justice position.
During the senate meeting students also had special presentations by new Athletic Director Kurt McGuffin and UTM Registrar Martha Barnett. Barnett and her team outlined details of the new DegreeWorks software which is scheduled to be available to students on Friday, Sept. 29 at 5 p.m.. Senate members had the opportunity to ask Barnett questions about the new software as well as get a personal walk through of features which it would hold.
Follow along with The Pacer for more DegreeWorks updates at a later time.
Each committee chair introduced themselves tonight and invited freshman council members, who were in attendance at senate for the first time this evening, to join their committees in order to be better involved.
SGA Advisor John Abel also gave an update on the status of family weekend, where he announced that as of the close of registration, 800 people have signed up to tailgate at Saturday’s football game against TSU. The first 500 students to arrive will also receive a free t-shirt, according to the Family Day emails that were sent to students.
The senate meeting was adjourned at 10:15 p.m.
Every student is a member of SGA and is encouraged to attend senate meetings. The next senate meeting is scheduled for Oct. 13 in the University Center’s Legislative Chamber, Room 111. Questions can be directed to student body president, Jordan Long at sga1@utm.edu.
