DeKALB – At the first Student Government Association meeting of the 2024-2025 academic year, in a 12-0-1 vote, Sen. Nathan Gonzalez was voted as the SGA Deputy Speaker.
The first SGA meeting of the 2024-2025 academic year was held at 4 p.m. Friday in the Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.
Manny Corpuz, speaker of the senate, said the other office of the speaker positions will be chosen soon.
“I’ll be interviewing next week for my other office of the speaker positions, mainly clerk and sergeant at large,” Corpuz said.
STUDENT TRUSTEE UPDATE
Aidan O’Brien, SGA student trustee, also discussed NIU’s enrollment numbers which were released Thursday.
“We’re one of the very few research public universities left in Illinois. There’s only a few other colleges in Illinois who are classified as a research institute” O’Brien said. “NIU released their 10-day enrollment numbers yesterday (Thursday). Enrollment stayed pretty steady compared to last year. However, we have seen a surge in transfers.”
HEARING OF BYLAW CHANGE
The SGA had a hearing for Bill SB56001, which would include an update to the SGA bylaws to allow organizations to be recognized if they are restricted by their national organization.
“This piece was written on the recommendation by the SGA adviser who says there’s an organization that’s currently looking to be recognized by SGA but have not been able to write their own constitution based on being restricted by their national charter,” Corpuz said. “This is mainly just for their non-discrimination clause in which our bylaws state that the constitution must include our SGA-recognized non-discrimination clause. This change just allows any organization that’s restricted from writing their own constitution to write their own constitution or to allow their national constitution to be used if they still meet all the other requirements to be an organization.”
Bill SB56001 will be voted on in two weeks and will be discussed again at the Sept. 20 SGA meeting.
APPROVAL OF NEW SGA DEPUTY SPEAKER
Gonzalez, a senior communication major, was given five minutes to stand before the other SGA senators to give a speech as to why he should be the SGA deputy speaker.
After Gonzalez finished his speech, Corpuz opened the floor to any questions that the other senators may have had for Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was elected the new SGA deputy speaker for the 2024-2025 academic year with a vote of 12-0-1.
SGA senate meetings are open to the public and held at 4 p.m. on Fridays, with locations posted in the senate’s agendas. SGA minutes and intent-to-speak forms are available on Huskie Hub.
