Council Clippings: UHR approves JFC policy changes

The Undergraduate House of Representatives meeting was an unusually short 30 minutes this week. The House was only presented with four bills, none of which involved any financial allocations and all of which received minimal discussion.

The meeting began with announcements from the executive officers of Student Government. The announcements included reminders about yesterday's football game against Virginia Tech and a request that House members wear gold. Vice president of Campus Affairs Stephen Kump announced that the athletic committee of SGA will be releasing a survey on football ticketing in the future to look for feedback.

UHR secretary Austin Rahm was absent this meeting so the official business of the evening began with a request for a replacement secretary. Once the position was filled the meeting began with the consideration of the Joint Resolution to amend Joint Finance Committee Policy.

The House passed an original version of the Joint Finance Committee Policy earlier in the year. The policy was, however, sent back to the legislative branches of Student Government after the Student Advisory Committee found fault in various procedural explanations and word choices.

The resolution to amend, which had previously been passed by the Graduate Student Senate, dealt with specific wording issues pertaining to the appeals process available to student organizations that feel that they were allocated funds in a biased manner. Specifically, the word "might" was changed to the word "may," per the recommendation of the Student Advisory Committee. The bill passed unanimously.

The second bill brought before the House was the Appointments to Institute Wide Committees. Nominations chair Leah McCormick spoke on the bill, explaining that she had not received a satisfactory response to many of the nominees, and as such could not recommend them for their positions. The bill was then split into two, with those candidates bearing the approval of the nominations committee now in bill A, and those without in bill B. The approved nominations were passed by unanimous affirmation, and the unapproved nominations were postponed until next week.

The fourth bill voted on by the House was the appointment of the undergraduate elections chair, Chirag Arya. Arya was a member of the elections committee last year under ex-representative Will Welch, and was the sole applicant for the position. The bill was approved by unanimous affirmation.

The final bill brought before the House was the Joint Appointments to the Joint Campus Organizations Committee. Again, nominations chair McCormick explained that she had not been in contact with the nominees, and as such could not recommend them for their appointments. Despite the Graduate Student Senate passing the bill earlier in the day, the House postponed the bill until next week.

Bills passed

Changes to Joint Finance Committee policy

Appointments to Institute-Wide Committee (A)

Appointments of Undergraduate Elections Chair

Bills postponed

Appointments to Joint Campus Organization Committee

Appointments to Institute-Wide Committee (B)