Council Clippings:UHR elects new members

The Undergraduate House of Representatives, the SGA legislative body representing undergraduate students, held its first meeting of the new school year this week.

It was the first UHR meeting presided over by Matt Peeples, the new executive vice president of the undergraduate student government. The meeting began with a series of announcements.

Susan Paraska and director of Athletics Dan Radakovich spoke about the Georgia Tech Athletic Association's preparations for their upcoming NCAA recertification. All athletic programs must undergo this recertification every 10 years to ensure the program upholds a commitment to athletic integrity.

Part of the recertification process consists of an external visit by peers from other NCAA programs who will evaluate Tech. The Athletic Association is currently preparing for the visit, which will take place Sept. 24-26. Administrators expect to learn of the NCAA's final decision some time next spring.

Rosalind Meyers, associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, spoke about the role of her department on campus, specifically their mission to be "financially self-sustaining as an umbrella organization." Auxiliary Services manages a vast swath of campus services and departments, including Dining, Housing, Parking and Transportation, Health Services and others.

The meeting next saw announcements from various executive committee members, including Anu Parvatiyar, undergraduate student body president, who explained to the Representatives the new ticket pick up procedures.

"SWARM members can now pick up their tickets the day before a game, instead of the morning of like last year," Parvatiyar said, referring to the campus cheering section seen at Tech sporting events. The organization is relatively young on campus but is already a fixture at games.

The House then elected three new Members-at-Large for the upcoming year. The three new representatives are George Ray, Robert McEntyre and Kelly Michaud.

The Representatives then voted on a number of internal positions. Austin Rahn ran uncontested and won the position of Secretary of the UHR. The second position elected was Treasurer, which was won by Carlos D'Almeida. The third position was Executive Nominations Chair, which was won for the second year in a row by Leah McCormick.

Sarang Shah, who was instrumental in setting up the PRS voting system to be used this year, was elected the House Administrative Committee Chair, and Spencer Hennigar was elected Legislative Nominations Chair.

The PRS voting system was only used in the final election, as there were technical difficulties requiring paper voting for the earlier elections of the night.

At the end of the meeting there was a motion to move the executive committee appointments from new business into old business, so as to expedite the executive officers' abilities on campus. After discussion on whether or not the appointments were necessary for this week, the motion failed. The meeting concluded with a reminder to the representatives to review the Joint Finance Policy, which will be up for debate and voting at next week's meeting.