The United Student Government (USG) met on Monday to discuss dress code, election advertising policy and its relationship with SAIL.

Senator Grace Tyler Frank-Rempel introduced Resolution 03042019.1, which would revise bylaw 206.2 that allowed the president to remove any member of USG after a consultation with the office of SAIL, specifically regarding the position of treasurer.

Treasurer Kortney Lampel supported the new rule, explaining that the currently in-place bylaws regarding how the treasurer position functions have been recently changed. Lampel also stated that it would give SAIL a role when the decision of removing a treasurer comes into play, given the treasurer’s relationship with SAIL.

“Both parties would have a say,” Lampel said.

Coordinator of SAIL and USG advisor Brad Kovalcik found a fault in the rule. Kovalcik claimed the rule allowed for presidents to be the first to initiate the removal, not SAIL. He also expressed concern that the consultation of SAIL in the decision of a treasurer’s removal could be over-simplified when a single member of SAIL could simply veto the president’s decision and called for further collaboration than what was proposed.

“I don’t love the wording of this,” Kovalcik said.

Kovalcik continued, saying that having the USG treasurer in the SAIL office was purely a beneficial move for USG, allowing them to directly be involved in club funding and this new rule may add an unneeded supervisor-like layer to the relationship – which could possibly undermine the Finance Committee’s plans.

“…it just seems like a really messy way for things to happen. Having a professional conversation that allows learning and growth to occur versus going through this red tape bureaucracy mechanism to put them on public trial…” Kovalcik said.

Senator Jacob Berlin weighed in, stating that “there is really no way to mandate professional communication within the Constitution.” He maintained that the removal of a USG member would still be handled professionally in accordance with bylaws. Berlin also noted that the use of the term “consultation” was intended to give the president more power with their Executive Cabinet than SAIL in the decision.

Resolution 03042019 was enacted by the Rules Committee to revise bylaw 101.513 to better clarify the dress code to USG members. The resolution entailed that members must dress professionally at all times to “reflect the organization accurately.” Members were reminded to always wear the latest edition of the USG polo, keep the logo visible at all times and wear appropriate legwear.

When the resolution was discussed in the meeting of the Rules Committee, the members had supposedly come to a unanimous and “smooth” decision on what should and shouldn’t be addressed in the dress code, unlike the two prior discrepancies involving the dress code in previous meetings.

The recently sworn-in senators had also just finally received their official polos as they had previously attended the meetings without proper attire, but were not reprimanded due to the long-awaited arrival of the polos.

With the final call for APF’s closing that night, Lampel detailed the final budget left unspent by clubs last funding period. She reported that $7,577 will need to be divided to and spent by clubs by Friday. Any unspent money would carry over into the next funding period and the last budget allocations to clubs will take place over the weekend.