BY MELISSA JOHNSON ’20
Senate met for the final time for the 2018-2019 academic year on Tuesday, April 23. The main focus of the meeting was to celebrate the conclusion of the academic year. The meeting also spent time on the Support PVTA Initiative and concluded the All-Campus Elections for this year.
SGA President Ambar Mejia-Villagra ’20 presented the ongoing Support PVTA Initiative, which helps support the full funding that the PVTA needs to maintain full service and routes throughout the Pioneer Valley, including the Five Colleges. Mejia-Villagra explained that the state of Massachusetts has continually decreased funding for the PVTA over the past several years. Students can contact Massachusetts State Representative Daniel Carey and Senator Jo Comerford to communicate their support for the Support PVTA Initiative.
“The PVTA helps us all get to classes, and it also helps local community members travel around the valley,” said Mejia-Villagra. “This is a very important initiative to support and also encourage your constituents to show support.”
The All-Campus Elections (ACE) committee then presented to the senators an important vote to decide if the most recent election results should be passed.
ACE committee chair Taira Masuda ’21 stated, “The reason we’re here is because we did not reach quorum for the second time. Therefore, Senate needs to vote to decide whether to accept the results or vote to extend the polls for another week.”
This is the second all-campus election that has occurred this semester. The first election did not reach quorum and pushed a second election to occur from April 15 to April 22.
Masuda explained that the first all-campus election earlier this semester was short 824 total votes of reaching quorum. The second and most recent all-campus election fell even shorter for SGA E-board.
Despite not reaching quorum, senators voted to accept the current results, citing the busy end of the semester and the unlikeliness that the number of votes needed to obtain quorum will be reached.
“The positions of those who won will be announced tomorrow, and any positions not filled will go onto an application process through the class boards,” said Masuda.