Graduate Students still have little voice in SG
By Allessandra Inzinna | Jan. 5, 2022Following the Fall 2021 elections, both the Graduate and Family Housing seats remained vacant. Seven total votes were cast for only write-in candidates.
Following the Fall 2021 elections, both the Graduate and Family Housing seats remained vacant. Seven total votes were cast for only write-in candidates.
Last Spring, SG passed 19 bills — at least 11 of which were resolutions. This semester, SG passed less than half of that. Seven bills were approved in the Senate chamber since September: three were resolutions.
Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday advocating for pedestrian safety at the intersection of University Avenue and Northwest 26th Street.
The annual address allows SG’s executive branch to list their accomplishments of the semester and what is to come. Tuesday’s address was the first in-person address since 2019, as SG held the most recent address online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since September, canvassers who claim to support Seminole Native American tribes have been spotted around campus collecting signatures for a cause many students know nothing about.
Built in April of 2009, the UF Veterans Memorial originally consisted of flags, a fountain and five granite pillars for each branch of the military. Now, the pond’s murky green water collects algae and has fallen into disrepair.
Gator Party has held a majority in Senate for more than a year since Spring 2020 when it won its first executive ticket. Now, with about 70 Gator senators in the chamber, the composition of Senate committees echoes this majority.
Although open to the public, standing Student Government committee meetings are often only announced on a clipboard on the ground floor of the Reitz Union. Students who do not pass the area and are not members of the committees themselves have no other means to find out SG meeting dates and times.
Some senators were dissatisfied with the picks for 21 committee seats and five open permanent Senate seats.
Senate elected its former Rules and Ethics Chair Annabelle Groux (Gator, District A) and former Judiciary Chair Noah Fineberg (Gator, District A) to serve as senate president and senate pro-tempore respectively.
Change Party won 12 seats in the Fall election, whittling down Gator Party's supermajority.
A total of 8,299 votes were cast, an increase of 35% from last Fall’s 6,130 ballots. Results were announced in person for the first time since COVID-19 hit in Fall 2019.
UF Students have seven options of polling locations to cast their votes to decide who will fill the 50 available Student Government Senate seats. Voting will take place Sept. 28 and 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Without a party to back them up, independent candidates are responsible for building their own platforms and campaigns.
Despite several parties registering to run for the Fall Student Government elections, only a few have taken steps to campaign.
In a case brought to the Supreme Court Sept. 9, Communist Party president Alfredo Ortiz brought his concern to the judges that the current design of the ballot is misleading and should be altered.
UF Student Government Fall election kicks off as slating and qualifying began Sep. 2
The conversation involved topics such as racism and cultural appropriation. Acho shared insight on his upbringing as a Nigerian-American, his NFL career and his popular video series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man."
At the end of BROCKHAMPTON’s concert, SGP, a SG-funded organization focused on bringing entertainers to UF, kicked off the first day of Fall classes with the announcement of its Homecoming and Gator Growl performers: Gunna and Neon Trees.
BROCKHAMPTON and Deb Never's Aug. 23 performance had a crowd of about 6,000 UF students who erupted in cheers as they took the stage. Upon entry, students passed through metal detectors, showed staff their mobile tickets and gave their student IDs to swipe and check their “cleared for campus” status.