SGA unveils new interactive Online Bill System

A brand-new online bill system has been rolled out by the Student Government Association (SGA) making the bill process and voting more accessible and transparent to the students not in SGA.

Students will be able to access the Online Bill System by going to www.gtsga.com. Not only will undergraduate representatives and graduate senators be able to author bills here, students will also be able to access and view bills that are currently under consideration by the SGA.

"This was entirely a student-led initiative," said Anu Parvatiyar, undergraduate student body president.

"The new Online Bill System will make Student Government more transparent by giving all students the opportunity both to see what bills are before SGA and to give feedback to their elected representatives," said Matt Peeples, Undergraduate Executive vice president.

There was an old billing system, but it was intended only to be used by members of the SGA to access, edit and view bills.

"The need [for the new system] arose because the only online bill system was dysfunctional," Peeples said.

The new site comes with an updated look and will include features that will make it easier for students to interact with and hold accountable their SGA representatives. Students will be able to ask their representatives questions, make comments on the bills being presented and ask for help on an SGA discussion board. The new system also provides a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed so that students will be able to keep up-to-date on all the changes that will occur.

"Currently there are four bills that are on the system and all are joint allocation bills," Peeples said.

Each bill and topic in the system is selectable. Selecting each subject will present more detail, including budget breakdowns and comments. Users will also be able to download all bills and forum topics in PDF format.

"[The Online Bill System] was a legitimate amount of work during the summer... and was written with Ajax and PHP. It is very dynamic with lots of users being able to read the data. Students now can actively and openly discuss the bills," said Matt Goforth, Chairman of the SGA Information Technology Committee.

SGA legislators see the new system as an opportunity to be more responsive to their constituencies.

"Now, if a student organization wants to plan an activity, all they have to do is ask the SGA community online how they can get the most assistance in the shortest amount of time."

"After a request for the funding is filed, everyone can engage in a discussion over whether the bill should be passed, and hopefully, students will e-mail or contact their representative through the site, and the representative will consider their constituency when they vote at the next legislative council meeting. I believe we have taken the next step forward toward being a more representative democracy," said Sarang Shah, House Committee Chair and Physics Representative.

The site is labeled as "provisional" while the administrators work out issues. The SGA is encouraging all students to register at the site.