The Student Government Association (SGA) held its second legislative body meeting of the semester this Monday, Jan. 24 in a new location: the JVH auditorium on the second floor of Thayer Hall. After some technical difficulties with setting up the Zoom call, which is still an option for senators to attend the meetings, the meeting began with its first open floor and reports of the cabinet, where recent acting Parliamentarian Kairi Stallsmith was officially appointed to full-time.

As the Omicron continues to spread, the cabinet followed up with their recent request to have the school hand out KN95 masks, instead of regular medical masks.

Dean of Student Life Michael Gieseke and SGA advisor reported that the masks are “ordered and waiting to be delivered to the university.”

Chief of Staff Sophie Burkholder announced the return of Pioneer Community Day, which has faced a few organizing obstacles in the last few years due to the pandemic.

“Pioneer Community Day has not happened since my freshman year,” said Burkholder. “It was a Saturday where we [students] met up, and worked with different partnerships in Pittsburgh, some worked Downtown, while others traveled and helped at community service events.”

Burkholder appointed Senator Batista to be the chair of this event, and a second one will be appointed by next week, as other senators’ applications are due this Wednesday.

Another new event is soon to come as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chair Elayna Bagaporo announced that SGA is partnering with the Center for Media Innovation (CMI) and Spiritual Life to host a multicultural event on campus this February, in the hopes of this event becoming annual.

“It has been a long while since something like this has happened,” said Bagaporo. “So I definitely wanted to bring this back and support everyone.”

Specific details on this event will be specified by the next meeting.

Other agenda items included discussing developments with SGA’s social media engagement. Communications Director Simko and Graphic Designer Kari Dettoree had some updates for the association’s social media platforms. Senator Salvador was appointed to be a “TikTok Connoisseur,” according to Vice President Kendra Summers, where he will help educate on the popular platform to spread SGA’s messages. Additionally, the Pets of SGA, new to the group’s Instagram page, will now have posts twice a week, showcasing members’ pets.

Also in this meeting, the group approved five new clubs, which included the Self Defense Club, Book Club, The Divines (a K-Pop dance group), Animator’s Survival Club, and We are Queens (a college women empowerment group). These new clubs’ proposed functions were sent to SGA and discussed before being approved. The club leaders will be contacted on the approval and hope to be listed on PointSync soon.

After these approvals, another proposal was approved on quorum – the minimum number of members of an assembly or society that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid. This proposal came as the group has had numerous schedule conflicts throughout the fall and spring semester, making it harder for members to attend. The newly passed article outlines specifically what are excused absences from meetings, how many a member can miss and how one could still possibly be involved in a meeting that they miss where voting might take place. The revision will be posted to their constitution by next week’s meeting.