United Student Government (USG) unanimously passed Resolution 1112018 at Monday’s Legislative Body Meeting.

Resolution 1112018 called for the removal of By-Laws 202.1 and 202.21 in USG’s constitution as they were in contradiction with the executive accession process outlined in the constitution.

Parliamentarian Matthew Spadaccia clarified the definition of executive accession in regards to USG’s constitution.

“That is just the way [to determine] who’s next in line to the presidency,” Spadaccia said. “So first it starts off with the president, then if the president leaves, the vice president moves up, and then if both of those move up the president pro-tempore [takes the President’s position] – so the same way [it works] in the United States government, that line of succession to the presidency.” 

The now null and void By-Laws, however, listed an alternative process of executive succession, where the president had some control over appointing positions.

“Those By-Laws, they give the president power to appoint somebody if the vice president resigns, dies, or [is] removed from office and gives the president power to appoint someone in that position,” Spadaccia said. “But if that’s not the case, if that position were to be vacant, the president pro-tempore would move to that position and the Legislative Body would elect a new president pro-tempore…That By-Law was contradicting, and […] in the end the constitution outweighs the By-Laws, so it just made no sense to have those By-Laws still in there when they don’t mean anything necessarily.”

President Paul Hennigan is due to make another visit to a USG Legislative Body Meeting after Thanksgiving Break. As such, USG President Kaylee Kearns decided to pass out two Globe articles by former Editor-in-Chief of the Globe and former USG Parliamentarian Alexander Popichak for a specific reason.

“President Hennigan is going to be at our next meeting since we won’t meet next week due to break, but the opinions one is kind of where Alex [Popichak] got his start with […] talk[ing] about the tuition paradox,” Kearns said. “And the second one…is the article that Alex wrote. So if [senators] could please look over this and kind of know what it’s about when President Hennigan comes back because that’s really what he wants to focus on.”   

USG also released their first newsletter on Monday via email, which included updates that have occured in this semester’s USG Legislative Body Meetings, such as the creation of the Disabilities Accommodations Committee and the activation of 10 student clubs. Although the newsletter lists the Disabilities Accommodations Committee meeting time to be 3:15 p.m. on Mondays, the committee actually meets on 3:00 p.m. on Fridays. In an email sent out to the student body, USG states that a newsletter will be sent out on a monthly basis “to update everyone on the happenings
of USG”.

As a part of the Communications Committee, Senator Montana Gabriele officially announced the newsletter’s debut. 

“The newsletter was sent out […] if you saw it. It looks really good in my opinion. Not that I’m biased or anything,” Gabriele joked, which was well received by the Legislative Body.

The senators adjourned Monday’s meeting earlier than usual with warm wishes to each other for Thanksgiving Break.