Mercer University’s Student Government Association (SGA) held its first meeting on Monday. The meeting began with the swear- ing in of SGA’s newly-elected freshmen rep- resentatives: Sarine Husein, Ngozidirichuk- wu Ihenacho, Logan Fowler, Elizabeth Mckay and Patrick Harris. After the fresh- man representatives were sworn in, each of them took their seats with the rest of SGA.
The meeting schedule included the discus- sion of six pieces of new business. Of the six new pieces of business discussed, five of them regarded new student organizations seeking SGA’s recognition and approval for funding.
According to SGA President Raymond Partolan, the majority of SGA’s budget goes directly to student organizations.
The clubs asking for SGA approv- al included a League of Legends club, Mercer Mentors, the National Black Students Association, Golden Key and Caribbean Student Association.
The first club to ask for SGA ap- proval was a new League of Legends club. Brady Brettin, the club’s presi- dent represented the club at the meeting.
League of Legends is a popular online video game. The club wanted to have SGA’s approval to be an independent club so that the game’s company will recognize the club as an official team. After presenting the club’s case, SGA voted to approve the club.
The second group was Mercer Mentors, represented by Josh Funderburke, is a group of students that wished to work with children at local schools. Their primary goal was to work with schools such as Southwest High school. Their group also received approval.
The third group was the National Black Law Students Association, which wants to help bring in students and help cre- ate good work experiences for stu- dents who are members of the group. This group received SGA’s approval.
The fourth group was the Golden Key Group. The Golden Key Group did not have a representative present at the meet- ing, so the SGA chose to postpone the decision on the group until the next meeting.
The fifth group was Caribbean Student As- sociation (CARIBSA). This student group wanted to expose Mercer to the Caribbean culture, and it received SGA’s approval.
The final piece of business SGA discussed was a motion to amend SGA’s fiscal affairs bylaws, which would change the procedure SGA uses to distribute funds to student orga- nizations. SGA voted to postpone the fiscal amendment vote until next week, pending ap- proval from the student affairs department.
When asked how he felt about the meet- ing, SGA President Raymond Partolan said, “Well, I definitely thought the first meeting, considering it was the first meet- ing, went incredibly smoothly.” He men- tioned that the help they had from peo- ple like Parliamentarian Wildes as the reason that meeting went so smoothly.
Vice President Melina Hettiaratchi ex- pressed similar feelings saying, “We have so many new people and it ran just like they had been doing it all year so I’m really proud of our new senators and our old senators for keeping decorum, setting a really good example, so I’m a proud VP right now.”
SGA’s next meeting is going to be on Monday, Sept. 16, at 5:30 p.m.
