By Jaime Hoerbelt
The Student Government Association senate shot down a proposal intended to create a position responsible for directing office space for clubs during its meeting on Tuesday.
The proposal sparked heated debate at the second SGA meeting of the semester. The office space proposal called for amendments and additions to the SGA constitution, creating a new position related to Club Affairs, as well as delegating some former responsibilities of the Club Affairs chair and committee to one person.
The proposed office space chair would work in conjunction with the Club Affairs committee to distribute the limited available office space among campus clubs. Senator Robin Doublebower, a junior, proposed the legislation, saying, “so much legwork is involved” in the process of allocating office space. She said a chair is needed to eliminate the “red tape and bureaucracy,” and added, “from personal experience, there needs to be one person to go to.”
According to the proposal, the office space chair along with the Club Affairs committee, would be responsible for determining if a club is qualified to receive office space, manage applications for space, oversee a club’s cleanliness and maintenance of its space, and be in charge of fining organizations that violate policies.
A motion was posed to postpone the proposal until next week to give the senators a chance to look over the constitution and the lengthy proposal.
The motion failed, but a moderated caucus was held for five minutes to allow senators to refer to the constitution evaluate the legislation.
Senators posed many objections; some did not see the point of the office space chair position, reasoning that it is the club affairs chair’s job to supervise and delegate space.
Weitzberg agreed that an additional chair would be a hindrance to clubs trying to gain office space, creating unnecessary obstacles.
“It’s a nice thought, but clubs have to go through so much already, why would you want to put another step in front of them,” said Weitzberg.
Other senators agreed that an office space chair would have too much power. “It would have been too easy for a person to take advantage of the position,” said Peter DiSilvio, the chair of the Club Affairs committee, said.
DiSilvio and the others objected to the ability of the office space chair to fine clubs and argued that it is the job of the Club Affairs committee, saying that it was too much power for one individual. “You already have three people who have the power to fine a club, and that’s too much already,” said Weitzberg.
After much deliberation, the proposal was brought to a vote and it failed, with seven votes for, fourteen against and eight abstentions. Doublebower intends to rework the legislation and bring it up at a later meeting.

SGA Senator Robin Doublebower