OUR VIEWS Consensus Opinion

Binding policies

An Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) committee has finally finished drafting proposals to amend the UHR bylaws. Although the proposals should not have taken this long to create, the Student Government Association (SGA) is in dire need of updated bylaws; this is a step in the right direction, no matter how late it is.

The most important proposal for the student body at large is to write Joint Finance Committee (JFC) policies into the UHR bylaws. Making JFC's policies binding would prevent UHR from arbitrarily passing and failing bills while ignoring JFC recommendations. Overriding JFC would require a two-thirds vote, which is highly preferable to a simple majority. Since the general idea of SGA's Student Activity Fee allocations is equity and fairness to all students, it makes sense that any deviation from JFC policy, whether it be to give an organization more or less money than recommended, would require a two-thirds vote. In fact, SGA should have to follow JFC recommendations to fail bills as well so that all groups are given equity.

Having guidelines to follow written in the bylaws will make the policy a binding document and save much of the debate during the SGA meetings as to whether or not to amend the bills to comply with the policy. It is also important that it is still possible to get around JFC policy if an organization has a legitimate need.

Exploring expansion

While female enrollment has continued to increase at Tech over the last few years, the number of sororities on campus has remained the same. However, several national sororities are looking to redress that matter and are interested in starting new chapters at Tech, and the Collegiate Panhellinic Council (CPC) is seriously looking into the possibility of expanding.

A new sorority would be a great move for the Greek community. Sororities have had to increase each of the current chapter's membership quota significantly in a short period of time, and many members feel this prevents them from getting to know all of their sisters. Additionally, for the past two years a large number of girls who participated in rush did not receive a bid. A new sorority could help both of these problems, decreasing sorority size while at the same time enabling more girls that are interested to receive bids.

It is important that Tech attract a quality national name if they decide to expand, to uphold the standards currently held by the Greek community. We look forward to further diversification of Tech's Greek population.