The 47th Legislature of the Student Government Association (SGA) voted unanimously to establish the position of associate vice president for communications and confirm new members to the SGA Elections Board.

Current SGA Vice President for Communications and College sophomore Jon Darby said a need for an associate exists.

“The office increasingly requires a specialized set of skills, including some basic HTML knowledge,” Darby said.

According to Darby, there is a precedent for this with the associate vice president for alumni relations.

Similarly, an associate vice president for communications would be a two-year commitment. During the first year, the VP for communications would train the associate, who would then assume the former position during the second year.

According to Darby, this will maintain continuity for those holding the position.

“Students wouldn’t see breaks in all the great things we’ve established for communications,” he said.

The bill, which needed 26 affirmative votes to pass since it changes the SGA Constitution, was approved unanimously by all 27 members present.

SGA also unanimously appointed College senior Matthew Pesce as chair of the SGA Elections Board, fifth-year Ph. D. student Meredith Philyaw as vice chair of the SGA Elections Board and Goizueta Business School senior Ben Lepore as treasurer of the SGA Elections Board.

The SGA Elections Board oversees University-wide elections and arbitrates campaign conflicts.

Next week, SGA will hear a bill that proposes changes to the monetary code, submitted by SGA Finance Committee Chair and College senior Calvin Lee.

Full-time Goizueta Business School MBA student David Kaplan also said he wants Lee to start including updates on the financial state of SGA’s accounts at the end of every agenda, which is also the subject of a bill that the Legislature will vote on next week.

The SGA Contingency Account currently has $8,984 for the rest of the semester, according to the agenda.

– By Rupsha Basu

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