Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: NEWS

The Student Government Association held its last spring senate meeting Wednesday night to discuss two bills and a resolution, including a possible change to the Latin Honor System.

There was also a presentation by NT Student Computing Services manager Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner about the move of the Eaglemail system to a Microsoft Exchange Server in the upcoming fall semester.

Incoming student accounts will be defaulted to the new system, but the owners can move existing accounts manually. Starting in the spring, all other existing accounts will be moved forcibly.

The SGA passed a resolution regarding the Latin Honor System, which would slightly lower the standards students have to meet in order to obtain Summa Cum Laude and Magna Cum Laude standings. The standings would go from 4.0 to 3.9-4.0 and from 3.8-3.999 to 3.7-3.899 respectively. Cum Laude would remain at a base GPA standing of 3.5 and up.

"It's just a really important thing for graduating students to have," said Jonathon Gallegos, a senator who submitted the bill. "If a student goes their entire college career and make one B, they demote you to the next tier in the Latin Honor system.... In my opinion, they still deserve that highest standard."

SGA President Josh Ness explained that the passed resolution would now be presented to the Faculty Senate.

Should it choose to agree on the resolution, it would then be presented to the University Administration, which will be given the opportunity to either implement or throw out the proposal. Gallegos is confident the bill will succeed beyond the SGA.

Jeff Kline, speaker of the student senate, chose 10 senator candidates for summer senate. The residing senate voted and approved seven of them to office and agreed to appoint Travis Mayberry as the summer assistant. Some senators expressed distaste for a few of the appointments made while others stated their preference of possible new candidates.

"I think a lot of resentment came from people just not knowing what the procedure was for appointments to the summer senate," Kline said, "but a lot of it might still be leftover embitterment or hatred from the results of the election."

The first bill, "Officers of Senate Responsibility," was denied because it did not gain a two-thirds majority vote. The bill would have required that officers be removed upon any three absences.

"This piece of legislation is a starting point to what could be a good thing for the SGA bylaws," senator Hunter Nelson said, "but I don't think it's ready to be added to what we already have."

The next bill, "Equality in Eligibility for the Summer Senate," would give outgoing members of the executive branch the opportunity to serve on appointed seats of the summer SGA senate. The bill was denied with a vote of eight to 11, and was found in direct violation of the Student Constitution.

"My name was on the bill to begin with," senator Dakota Carter said. "I did not know it was in direct violation of the constitution. I still support it, and think it's a great idea, but if we're going to go about it to not cause problems in the future, we need to amend the constitution."

Carter and Nelson are two of the senators approved to serve during the summer, and both said they feel the bills may be readdressed then.

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