![](http://news.gwradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/40355_143875315630495_7054067_n1.jpeg)
The Student Association Senate met on Monday for a meeting that focused on routine procedural matters. The majority of the time was spent approving event co-sponsorships and updating financial rules.
The Senate unanimously approved $6246 to help 12 students attend this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University, a three day global entrepreneurship conference that is being held at Arizona State University in March. GW hosted the event in 2012 and is sending a total of 20 students this year.
The Senate also approved a $15,000 co-sponsorship for the College Democrats to bring a speaker for the annual Only at GW Debate Series. The event is jointly run by the College Democrats, the College Republicans, and the Program Board, and features two speakers, one each brought in by the College Democrats and the College Republicans. (The Senate had approved a $15,000 co-sponsorship to support the College Republicans’ speaker at an earlier session.)
Omeed Firouzi, President of the College Democrats, (as well as a U-At-Large S.A. Senator), said that he couldn’t reveal the name of the speaker at the moment.
“[It’s a] big name speaker… [who] appear[s] on television a lot,” Firouzi said.
The sole piece of legislation considered was to update and amend the rules regarding student organization allocations and SA finances. Senator Ryan Counihan (SoB-U), Chair of the Finance Committee, explained why each of the over a dozen changes to the 15 page bylaws was necessary. Counihan said the committee had been working on clarifying and updating the bylaws for months, which was necessary because “a lot of things just got messed up” in the previous year.
After fixing various typos and grammatical mistakes, the legislation passed unanimously.
Senator Chris Stillwell (ESIA-U), who was a candidate in last week’s race for Executive Vice President and is the chair of the special committee tasked with creating a report about the possibility of student representation on the school Board of Trustees, said that he had no updates at this time but “we will have updates at the next meeting.”
Current S.A. President Julia Susuni and Executive Vice President Kostas Skordalos congratulated the President and E.V.P. elect, as did many other Senators. Nick Gumas (CCAS-U), who won the Presidential election last Thursday, was present and active in the meeting, although his opponent, Daniel Egel-Weiss (U-At-Large), was absent. EVP-Elect Avra Bossov was present as a member of the public during the session.