Last week’s United Students Government meeting ended with a lot of confusion about a proposal.

“Bill Number Six” came to the attention of the Senate. Rules and regulations Chair Idriss Abass presented the idea to raise the GPA of senators up from a 2.0 to a 2.25. Due to the fact the current election season has already started, the timing of this bill would put current senators on separate standards.

“If we vote this into action now, then when grade checks come in, since the applications currently state 2.0, the new senators would be judged upon that, while us current senators would need to have that 2.25,” Abass stated.

“Bill Number Six” would bring about some confusion in the standards that senators are currently accustomed to. Senators are held to the same standards as all students; they must have a GPA of at least 2.0 or they will fall into the dangers being on academic probation.

“We are the face of the students and honestly we shouldn’t be in this room if our GPA isn’t above 2.25, and I know we may have applicants who came in with a 2.0, but maybe this is an opportunity to cut those people out and pick those that meet the higher standards,” Senator Roberto Williams said.

Currently, Speaker Pro-Tempe Tahnee Marcus-White is going through four election applications that have been filed to her office as the elections process is still open until February 12. For the sake of being fair, it was suggested that candidates be notified of the change and given a semester to then change their GPA, meaning they could be elected this semester with a 2.0, but by the end of next semester they would need a 2.25.

“Personally, I think that would be unfair,” Executive Vice President Emily Leminger said. “If I knew my friend had a lower GPA than me and got to stay on, I wouldn’t be happy. If I knew my GPA was 2.2 and my friend was 2.1, she shouldn’t be allowed to stay on because she got elected at a certain time.”

In the end, the decision was put on hold to be further discussed in the weeks to come, but brings up the interesting question: Should USG Senators be held to a higher standard than normal students? And what affect would it have on its current members?

email: [email protected]