The Student Government Association is proposing a previously-failed referendum in the spring 2014 voting cycle that will attempt to quicken the legislative process by increasing the amount of money that automatically tables a motion.
This amendment has no financial ramifications for students. This modification is merely a procedural change to the constitution for the senators on the SGA.
As it currently reads, when the price of a motion exceeds $200, it is automatically tabled for one week in order to give senators time to consider spending that much money.
Melissa Cloutet, SGA president, said that this current format slows down the government processes.
“We have to wait a week before we can vote on [motions] and make a decision,” Cloutet said. “By changing it to $500, this will allow us to move forward faster with the process. If we spend over $500, our senators are still going to wait a week to decide if they want to vote on it and purchase it.”
Current Vice President of SGA Adam Lefort said that before this part of the constitution was last amended, SGA did not have nearly as much money to spend, which explains the current low limit.
“When we got our referendum in 2012, it increased the amount of money that we could spend,” Lefort said. “Before, we didn’t have that much money, so the low limit made sense, but now that we have a lot more money to spend, it’s really hard to move on with it.”
“Senators weren’t writing motions requiring large amounts of money to be spent, but now we’re writing bigger motions for more things for the students,” Cloutet said.  
In 2008, the limit was raised from $150 to $200, but the SGA executive board feels that number is still not enough.
Lefort explained that some motions do not require as much time to think about as others.
“You would not want to be presented with something that costs $30,000 and have to vote on it right there,” Lefort said. “But if we wanted to buy towels for the rec center, we would have to wait a week because it was $212 or something like that.”
Lefort thinks that the current limit is too low. “It’s really hard to find something that’s under $200. When it was written, it was much cheaper to buy things, especially with shipping and handling.”
SGA Treasurer Bobby Dufrene explained that 19 motions had to be tabled last year, and there have been 10 so far this year.
This amendment was on the ballot in the fall, but did not pass.  This time, the amendment has been re-worded and will be easier for students to understand.
“When we voted on it in the fall, it actually failed by 14 votes. I don’t think [students] were aware, and I don’t think they understood what it meant. This semester, we’re really trying to really encourage students to go out and vote for it,” Cloutet said.
Some other things on the ballot include SGA presidential candidates, Mr. and Ms. Nicholls candidates and another amendment regarding culinary and university college senators.
Voting starts on Sunday, April 6 at noon and will last until 11:59 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9. Voting takes place online via the “Vote Now” link on the University website’s home page and any student who is currently enrolled is eligible to vote.