The Student Governing Association approved and passed an edited intern program unanimously during Thursday’s senate meeting.
The original bill, which was referred back to the Special Committee on Membership after it failed to pass through final action two weeks ago, would have established a five week informational session for any student interested in getting involved in SGA. From that point, interested students would move into a second program to be partnered with a mentor and placed in a rotation through their preferred branch of SGA.Related:
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In the updated bill, the first part of the program and its stipulations remain unchanged, while the second phase of the program models the current intern program’s application process.
Students interested in pursuing SGA involvement after the informational course will be required to apply to the intern program, and, upon selection, would then be partnered with a mentor and assigned to their requested branch rotation.
Ryan Kelly, junior in civil engineering and chair of the special committee, said the edits to the legislation limit class capacity of the first three informational courses offered in each academic year to 35 interns. Moving into the following courses, the further selection of interns will fall on the discretion of the intern coordinators.
As it stands now, the intern program only allows for 35 interns.
Some of the criteria for intern selection include course attendance, performance within the first phase and a “demonstrated passion to advocate for KSU students and a desire to play an active role in KSU SGA.”
“I think that these changes bring a lot of comments and concerns that were voiced in [the previous] senate meeting to the table,” Kelly said. “Essentially what this would do is it would still provide open and free access to all students who want that education in that five week course.”
Kelly said that he believes the bill’s passing accomplishes two things.
“I think that’s a way that we identify that driven, passionate group of students, but we also open up an opportunity to all students to get that education, and we kind of differentiate those two paths,” Kelly said.
The bill passed unanimously with 42 senators voting in favor. All changes instituted by the passage of this bill will take effect in the coming academic year.
