The United Student Government (USG) held its second-to-last meeting of the semester on Monday, April 15. The legislative body sought to tie-up loose ends and discuss resolutions that will affect USG as it moves into summer session under a new administration.

There was also extensive discussion on the floor regarding the discharging of the Pioneer Community Day ad-hoc committee. Senator Kooper Sheeley, who serves as co-chair of the committee, argued against discharging it.

“Because in the motion that was made, there was designated year given, and it was just to do the task,” Sheeley said. “But the task was to plan Pioneer Community Day. And we did plan 2019, but we also set the date for 2020. So technically, as a committee, we would still have a goal.”

Sheeley also argued that the Pioneer Community Day committee would benefit from having a full year to plan the event. Typically, the committee is formed during the school year and is discharged following Pioneer Community Day.

“What good is dissolving a committee going to do if you’re just going to reinstate it later on?” Sheeley said. “If you keep it standing you can have a bigger day. The entire point of Pioneer Community Day is to be a community-wide event. Dissolving it is essentially saying ‘hey, it’s fine, we can make this again in three months and have the people doing it have their heads explode.’ This was a difficult day to plan in three months, and giving it extra time, however much time that would be, would be more beneficial to this day.”

The motion to discharge the Pioneer Community Day committee failed on the floor. However, Senator and President-Elect Jake Berlin stated that a potential standing committee would be discussed during the Rules Committee meeting later that evening.

The body also moved to adopt two Resolutions brought forward by Rules Committee. The first Resolution, 04082019, was brought back to the legislative body after being tabled last week. The Resolution was initially tabled as a needed section of the legislation was missing. Resolution 04082019 moves to increase the office hours for the Recording Secretary, Parliamentarian and Communications Director from four hours to five. It also establishes new office hours for the Treasurer, with two being served in the USG office and eight hours served in the office of SAIL. The Treasurer’s stipend will also be increased from $500 to $1,000 due to increased office hours.

Another Resolution, 04152019, was also passed by the legislative body. This Resolution moves to increase the stipend for the President from $1,000 to $1,500. It also increases the Vice President’s stipend from $750 to $1,250. These increases coincide with the increase in the Treasurer’s stipend. These adjustments also follow an audit of hours served in relation to stipend amounts. Senator Berlin and Parliamentarian Matthew Spadaccia, who both serve on Rules Committee, informed the legislative body that neither Berlin nor Senator and Vice President-Elect Alexa Lake, who also serves on Rules Committee, voted in favor of bringing this Resolution to the legislative body meeting. According to Berlin and Spadaccia, both Berlin and Lake abstained from this vote. Berlin also noted that discussion regarding this Resolution began long before this year’s election.

The Finance Committee also moved to apply the Spring 2019’s leftover budget to the upcoming summer session’s budget. It was pointed out that the alternative to rolling over these funds would be to allow the funds to be released away from USG and back into the university. The legislative body voted in favor of this motion.

Next Monday, April 22, the legislative body will meet in Student Center 701 for the final time this semester. During this meeting, Berlin and Lake will be sworn in to office. The newly-elected senators for the Fall 2019 semester will also be sworn in.