ll- _AMPUS campus@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, SeptemberZOth,2016

Election results revealed, new student organizations approved at SGA Senate meeting

Continued from Page 3

political advocacy organizations which
opposed the teaching of intelligent design
and creationism theories in public schools.
Pastafarianism, as the religion is called, is
legally recognized in a handful of countries,
but was ruled not to be a legitimate religion
in the United States in an April 2016 court
decision.

The students presenting FSM at
Senate began their time with an introductory
video explaining some of the basics of the
religion (which include an all-powerful deity
taking the form of spaghetti, and the annual
celebration of “Talk Like A Pirate Day”), then
demonstrated a specific plan for on-campus
events and for an organized Executive Board
to carry out leadership duties. Senators’
questions for the group largely revolved
around the inclusiveness of their activities
(to which presenters answered that all were
welcome at their events, and as members in
their organization), and whether they had
coordinated at all with Lynne Meyer, the
director of Spiritual Life and Diversity in the
Office of Campus Life. The primary speaker
for the group stated that Meyer had actually
been the first to suggest making the group
an official student organization, and that
they had been working with her throughout
their development. After a very brief
private discussion primarily focused on the
organization’s impressive structure and vision

so far, Senate voted it through by a margin of
10 for, 3 against, and 3 abstaining.

Following each new student
organization vote, the SGA Executive Board
presented in turns. President Leo Sukkar took
time to simply thank the outgoing Senate,
and encourage each member to continue
involvement in SGA in some way. Since only
one Senator had run for reelection, this message
was intended for the vast majority of those
present. Following Sukkar’s comments (which
were bolstered by similar words from Executive
VP Kamdar), the VPs of Academic Affairs,
Communications, and Student Life presented
jointly, briefly introducing information about
their committees for potential incoming
Senators. Akash Raina, Academic Affairs VP,
highlighted his committee’s work formulating
the pass/fail proposal the previous semester (to
be implemented in Spring 2017), and indicated
that his committee’s close relationship with
Illinois Tech’s Provost, Frances Bronet, and the
university’s Board of Trustees allowed them
to push for student-led academic initiatives.
Communications VP Jelani Canty put a focus
on community service in his committee, as
well as fostering a positive relationship with
student organizations in this academic year
(especially media organizations TechNews
and WIIT). Student Life VP Qianran He
spoke primarily about the launch of and
continued improvements to the HAWKi
app, and welcomed any new Senators to join
her committee to improve the daily lives of

Adverfise in

students at Illinois Tech.

Before election results were to be
announced, there were two important items
still to get out of the way. Finance Board Chair
Sung Min Choi Hong summarized the first
Finance Board hearing of the semester, in which
$142,583.72 was approved of the $255,714.22
requested by student organizations. He
explained that any organization wishing to
appeal their decision could first talk to Finance
Board, then file a petition with SGA’s Judicial
Board if they were still unsatisfied.

Piggybacking off of that topic,
Judicial Board’s recently-approved Chief
Justice, San Dinh, put forth three individuals
to fill the vacant slots in his Associate Justice
Roster: Mohammed Samir Siddique, William
Gordon, and Shreya Jha. Each candidate
was questioned about their motivations
for becoming a Justice (notably, Siddique
mentioned that he is a current Kent Law
student looking for on-campus experience in
similar areas), and Dinh was asked about how
the candidates were recruited (through an
email sent when Senate nominations opened
last month). The slate of Justices was then
approved by a Senate vote of 14 for, 1 against,
and 1 abstaining.

Finally, it was time to reveal the
victors of this year’s Senate elections, which
featured a higher total turnout of voters than
either of the previous two years choosing
between a total field of 20 candidates (drawn
from 88 nominations). The winners are listed

below in descending order of total votes,
separated by the college they represent:

Applied Technology - Caitlin Simpson and
David Sobel

Architecture - Savannah Brown
Business - Boran Chen and Ethan Castro

Engineering - Alyssa Deluca, Kislay Bhagat,
Franklin Nwaezeigwe, Golzar Shobeiri,
Richard Opara-Ndudu, Jacob DiGiorgio, and
Jillian Edwards

Human Sciences - Trixie Weiner

Science - Gina Oberoi, Nathan Jones, and
Sydney Smith

Some colleges did not have enough
candidates to fill their entire constitutionally-
mandated number of Senators, so those
openings will be advertised and filled through
Senate votes later in the semester. Each Senator
represents the voice of the students in the
College they represent, and are meant as a
contact point for student issues arising from
each college. New Senators (and all current
SGA members) will be participating in a
mandatory retreat on Saturday, September 24
to orient them to their role, and business will
proceed as usual very soon for the 2016-2017
academic year.

 

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