Members of the Associated Student Body held the first formal senate of the 2023-24 school year on Tuesday, Sept. 5 in Auditorium Room 124 located in the student union. Senators debated and voted on three bills that involved internal incentives for senators, modifications for free food and giveaway regulations and removing GPA requirements for ASB senate, homecoming court and campus favorite elections.
After calling roll, issuing reports and inducting new senators into the organization, the first bill titled SB 23-6 was brought to the floor. The bill proposed modifications to the constituency engagement point system, an internal system in ASB meant to hold senators accountable for maintaining healthy relationships with the constituents they represent. The constituency engagement point system has recently been difficult to enforce, the issue coming to a head with SB 23-6 i.
According to Madison Waldrup, author of the bill and a sophomore integrated marketing communications major, this modification will make senatorial duties more manageable.
“The code changes will decrease the number of points a senator needs from five to four, and there will also be a checkpoint in the middle of this semester, eight weeks into the semester, where senators will need to have completed their first two points. This will create accountability and make sure that people don’t put these points off till the last minute when they can’t really complete them to the best of their abilities,” Waldrup said.
The bill passed unanimously, as did the second bill of the evening entitled SB 23-7.
SB 23-7 proposed removing current restrictions on food giveaways to enhance the campus experience. According to the bill, students campaigning will benefit because “providing another pathway for creativity like edible giveaways will have an effect of positivity towards campaigns.”
SB 23-8, the final bill, proposed removing GPA requirements to qualify for homecoming court, campus favorite and senate elections. The bill would replace the 2.75 GPA requirement with the sole requirement to be in good academic standing with the university, which would allow anyone with a GPA of 2.0 or more to qualify.
Unlike the first two bills which passed without a hitch, several voices of dissent rang out and the senate erupted into debate about SB 23-8.
Although the GPA requirement includes homecoming court and campus favorite elections, the main debate centered around ASB senate elections. Many senators claimed a 2.75 GPA requirement shows signs of positive work ethic and academic stability, and that abandoning the requirement could potentially bring in new senators who are not cut out for the rigors of senate life.
Sen. Kaitlyn Skeen, a senior biological sciences major, thinks the bill is unfair to current senators with a GPA of 2.75 or higher.
“I think that lowering a GPA requirement to just be in good standing isn’t quite fair, because we all work our tails off, make ourselves balance our academic possibilities and choose to have this ambition of following our extracurriculars like ASB,” Skeen said.
On the other side, many senators argued that abandoning the GPA requirement could help with student representation and break a potential barrier for those interested in participating in student government.
Sen. Hannah Watts, a junior majoring in public policy leadership, expressed that changing the requirement would promote student inclusion.
“I think it’s really important to remember the goal of this body is to represent the students here at the University of Mississippi, and to provide that representation, we do need to allow everyone who has a good academic standing to be able to share that voice,” Watts said.
Sen. Caleb Ball, a junior political science major, also advocated for the bill to pass on the grounds of diversity.
“I think that lowering that GPA would make it more equitable and our body more diverse to students who may not have a certain GPA requirement,” Ball said.
After some debate, the bill failed with a 15-25 vote, thereby keeping the GPA requirement at a 2.75 to qualify to run for homecoming court, campus favorite and senate elections.
Sen. Elizabeth Wildman, a sophomore public policy leadership major, shared her disappointment at the bill’s failure to pass.
“The third bill failing was somewhat disappointing because I feel that it was hard for a lot of our senators to empathize with the circumstances and scenarios that we were explaining. I feel like there was a lack of empathy with a lot of our senators when considering the bill,” Wildman said.
Ball also expressed that student inclusion is ASB’s top priority.
“I hear things like ‘we’re out of touch with the student body’ or ‘we think we’re better than everybody and we think that we’re pretentious,’ so I was in favor of lowering that GPA requirement because if you’re in good standing with this university, you deserve to represent your community,” Ball said.
