By Ehlayna Napolitano (Assistant News Editor)
 

 
Effective immediately, the Student Government Association will be implementing new legislation regarding position-holding within SGA.

 
On Thursday, April 18 a new amendment, which would limit the positions any one member of SGA can hold was proposed and passed. According to this legislation, a member of the Programming Committee cannot also hold a Senate position.

 
“They wanted to make sure that a programmer could not fill the seat of a senator and that a senator could not also fill the seat of a programmer because both bodies have caps on them and they both fall under the umbrella of SGA,” said SGA advisor Robyn Kaplan.

 
The legislation would therefore act as a control on SGA members, ensuring that as many students as possible are able to participate as functioningmembers of the organization. Prior to the introduction of this amendment, positions on both boards could be filled taking a position away from a possibly interested students.

 
That is how Chelsea Gillyard, Programming Board Chair and writer of the amendment, came up with the idea for the legislation.

 
“If one person was both a senator and a programmer, it would take the opportunity away from two students,” Gillyard said. “I’m not looking at it as…allowing one person to have more opportunity, I’m looking at it as taking opportunities away from more people.”

 
President Ron Singh gave his support to the legislation, saying he stood behind it as a way to make SGA more efficient and allow more students to join SGA.

 
“[It’s] as it should be, in my opinion, because it allows us to specialize in our tasks, it allows us stay focused on our task and it allows us to put our best in something we’re not only passionate about, but something we’re responsible for,” Singh said.

 
Although the legislation will go into effect this year, according to Singh, it will not affect students currently holding the two positions in question. These students will be grandfathered in and dual positions will be abolished over time. From now on, students will be allowed to occupy both positions.

 
Student reaction to this new measure appears to be positive.

 
Freshman public relations major Nathalie Salazar felt that the SGA had taken a step in the right direction by restricting its members in this way.

 
“With multitasking, tasks could be lost… and I think it makes it better. The job[s] will be more efficiently filled if there [are] separate people focusing on that one thing… it’s a good move,” Salazar said.