SGA Senate expansion bill sent back to committee

A bill that would expand the size of the Student Government Association Senate from 52 members to 60 was sent back to the Legislative, Judicial and Rules Committee on Thursday during the regular senate meeting.

Bill 42-27, written by Senator Richard Skandera, College of Graduate Studies Seat 3, would bump the number of seats from 52 to 60.

It would be the first change to the number of seats within senate in a decade.

In 2000, the senate approved Bill 32-88, which indefinitely locked the number of seats at 52 and called for yearly adjustments of the number of seats alloted to each college based on the number of enrolled students within it.

Skandera gave a presentation outlining data concerning the number of students at UCF vs. the number of SGA senators.

The current ratio is 1019 students per senator. If the bill passes, it will change the ratio to 883 students per senator.

The bill was met with debate.

"My biggest problem with this is that it's leaving this open-ended," said Senator Zachary Haber, College of Graduate Studies Seat 5.

Haber said he likes the idea of the bill, but it needs to be more structured.

"I wouldn't want to say that I want to put more senators in senate unless I know exactly where they are going to go."

Senator Erica DeSanti, College of Health and Public Affairs Seat 4, made a motion to send the bill back to committee. The motion passed, and the bill, which went through first reading on Jan. 14, will be seen again by the LJR Committee.