SGA buys two new ellipticals

Two new elliptical machines will soon be purchased for the fitness center. At its April 4 meeting, the Student Government Association (SGA) approved a bill allocating $10,390.00 to the fitness center to buy the two machines.

The bill, proposed by David Peduto ’11, emphasized that SGA funding in the fitness center was necessary due to the center’s low operating budget, which has stagnated at $15,000.00 per year. With such limited funds, in recent years the operating budget has been used to repair old machines rather than purchase new ones. As a result, the elliptical machines currently in place at the fitness center are more than 10 years old.

Noting that students, faculty, and sports teams all use the Fitness Center, Peduto stressed that the fitness center is one of the most used facilities on campus and thus funding the new machines is a decision that, though expensive, will benefit a large percentage of the College community. Although the use of SGA funds to buy infrastructure is not a regular occurrence — as members of the SGA indicated — it was deemed a cost-effective decision given the current constraints on the fitness center’s budget and the high demand for new gym equipment. The machines will be purchased by the end of spring 2010.

On April 4, the SGA also voted in support of a bill that will move Senate elections from the fall to the spring. Under the fall election cycle, the SGA had to wait to resume meeting until after all elections had taken place. In the past, this resulted in the SGA not being able to meet until October and sometimes as late as after Thanksgiving. The SGA voted unanimously to move the elections to the spring to provide ample time for newly elected Senators to become familiar with Senate operations and to allow all Senate members to use the summer months to plan and prepare for the upcoming year.

SGA Speaker of the Senate Ethan Schmertzler ’12 emphasized this point, noting: “This bill allows the SGA to better serve the community by eliminating the Senate’s operational dead period during the beginning of the school year. Also, it means that the Senate will have five months in advance of their first session to plan, coordinate, and prepare for the coming year.”

As a result of the new election schedule, first-years will no longer be eligible to be Commons senators. Some SGA members initially voiced concerns over this decision, worrying that first-years would be highly opposed to exclusion from Commons senatorial elections.
Schmertzler, who was a first-year Commons senator, supported the bill after much deliberation. “The point to take away is that thoughtful deliberation took place, with particular emphasis on how the bill would affect future [first-year] classes,” said Schmertzler. “It was decided that by the nature of a Commons senator’s role in the SGA, no part of our community was being disenfranchised by changing their date of election. Even having started my time in the SGA as the Atwater Senator my freshman year, I still felt that the bill made sense and was right. Importantly, the first-year senators agreed with this perspective.”

Presidential elections will be held from April 15 to 16, presidential runoff elections (if needed) from April 22 to April 23, and Senate elections from April 29 to April 30. First-year class elections will still be held in the fall.