The second Student Government Association (SGA) meeting began on Monday, Sept. 14th, with the announcement of the club fund meeting for this semester. The meeting will be held this upcoming Friday, Sept. 18th, from 1-4:30 p.m. With the new senators choosing committees at this time, Hayzlett suggested that it would be beneficial to have at least five people on finance committee present for this meeting alone. Treasurer Kasey Newman agreed and reiterated this point when discussing the meeting.

“Since this is a priority, I definitely need at least five people to volunteer,” Newman said. While discussing the upcoming meeting, Newman made sure to explain the step-by-step process of funding clubs to provide enlightenment for the new senators. 

During the senator reports, Zachariah Washington offered an update on a reference binder he’s putting together to give to senators containing the constitution and other resources for members of the legislative body. The binders should be ready by the end of this week, according to Washington. Washington also encouraged executive cabinet members to let him know if they think there’s a document that should be included. 

Communications Director Zeigler informed the new senators of a questionnaire that will be sent for them to complete so they can be introduced to the student body through the SGA social media accounts. 

President Pro-Tempore Sophie Burkholder used her report to inform students of how office hours are to be executed in the upcoming semester, both in person and online. She also implored students to remember to log their office hours for the week. She also took the time to remind students of the International Relief fund which she is working on with President McDermott, which supplies COVID-19 relief funds for international students, since they didn’t get any of the COVID funding that the university provided last semester.

Senator Jordyn Hronec shared a project she’s working on involving the organizing of a Zoom meeting between The Globe, the Point Park News Service and Postindustrial, a professional media outlet, on how students can get their work published.

After the senator reports, McDermott presented a temporary resolution, S.09142020, which would allow the Conservatory to have one more senator than is normally allowed by the constitution.The resolution would be renewed if the seven COPA senators were all staying for the spring semester, but if not, the resolution will not be renewed. McDermott shared his own personal opinion, which is that the rule allowing only a certain number of senators in a certain school during a pandemic was “arbitrary,” but encouraged the SGA senators to challenge him regarding the issue. President Pro-Tempore Burkholder moved to pass this resolution, Hronec seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. 

After Cole D’Alicandro listed which senators were to be appointed to which schools, Hronec moved to appoint the new senators to the senate. The motion passed without objection.

Hayzlett recognized the regular Oath of Office and how it is usually verbally exchanged, but described the taking of the Oath of Office over Zoom as “Bad.”

“Zoom does not like it when you talk over each other,” Hayzlett said. 

In lieu of the regular oath exchange, senators will receive an email with a written Oath of Office for senators to reply in agreement with. Hayzlett established that students who were being appointed would be free from then on to vote in the meeting. Kari Detorre was also appointed as the Graphic Designer for the executive cabinet, a motion which also passed. 

Afterwards, Dean Gieseke took the time to congratulate the new senators, wish them luck and to share that he looked forward to working with them in the upcoming semester, and imparted them with a word of advice.

“You do not serve the president or the vice president, and I say that with all respect. You serve the students,” Gieseke said. 

The last segment of the meeting opened the floor to concerns of newly appointed senators, topics which include last year’s Drake Bell funding incident, the state of sexual assault and Title IX at the university. The next meeting is set for next Monday, Sept. 21.