Vice presidential duties outlined in final GSB meeting

Rebecca Carton

In its final meeting of the 2007-08 session, the Government of the Student Body Senate passed a bill explicitly detailing the duties of the vice president Wednesday night.

Some discussion arose about a bill calling for changes in the bylaws that outline the responsibilities of the GSB vice president. The bill passed by a vote of 19-2-0.

Senator Taleen Brady, senior in psychology, said the bill wasn’t attacking anyone in particular, but she believed the duties should be outlined.

“Many people have been consulted. I don’t feel like I’ve excluded any one person,” she said. “I think it’s very important that we do outline these responsibilities. I think it needs to be handled.”

Senator Charles Wakefield said he thought the bill was not necessary.

“To me, it just seems kind of redundant to put all this stuff in there again. This is silly,” he said.

City Council Ex-Officio Liaison Maggie Luttrell, GSB vice-president-elect and senior in history,said she agreed with the bill.

“I think it gives me, for my future job, a little more job description but still makes it flexible that it’s up to me about the projects I need to do,” she said.

One amendment made to the bill stated that the position of vice president would require a minimum commitment of 10 hours per week.

GSB Finance Director Ryan Myers, graduate student in accounting, said that, considering the amount of money with which the vice president is compensated, 10 hours was a reasonable request.

“I work about 37 to 40 hours a week. They get paid 80 percent of what I do. On average, that would be about 30 hours,” he said. “The vice president gets paid 31 times what the speaker does. I think 10 is a very low estimate.”Twenty additional bills were set to be resolved, with the majority requesting funding for various items and student organizations. The balance of the capital projects account, which most bills are funded by, was $51,047.72 at the start of the meeting.

With so many requests for funding, Myers said the Senate should be aware of the limited funds.

“If you want to fund something higher than the number on the page, it needs to come from somewhere else,” he said. “Please be wise in your decisions and realize that everyone’s worked hard on every project that’s on that page.”

The Senate passed a bill allocating $7,500 to Facilities Planning and Management for the new lights on the east side of the Memorial Union. The bill passed by a vote of 10-9-2.

Wakefield said he did not believe the lighting was necessary but was unable to convince any other senators to call the matter into debate.

“I guess I really don’t see a problem with the lighting. While it might be nice to have the lighting, I don’t think it’s something we can justify spending $7,000 for,” he said.

GSB also passed a bill allocating $2,000 from the capital projects account to FP&M to reroute roof runoff to Lake LaVerne in efforts to beautify the area. The bill passed by a vote of 19-0-2.

After this final session, the newly elected 2008-09 GSB Senate will be inaugurated next Tuesday.