The Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) approved an amendment this week to modify the Undergraduate Executive Bylaws.
One of the major changes was the promotion of the head External Affairs from the Director of External Affairs (Special Assistant to the President) to the Vice-President of External Affairs.
“Having a permanent external affairs advisor to the President is important when dealing with our relationship/views on the State legislative process, issues of national/state/local politics, and any community service and other outside organizations,” said Undergraduate student Body President Eran Mordel.
“This has definitely been a growing need and one that has proven itself over the position’s tenure in SGA,” he said.
This amendment also saw the creation of the new External Affairs Board, which absorbed several committees under its umbrella including the Student Lobby Board, the Community Relations Task Force and the Institute-Wide Committees Chair.
“[The Student Lobby Board] and its Chair take an active role in assisting the VP of External Affairs to engage GT students and best represent our Undergraduate student body’s thoughts,” Mordel said.
Another provision in the amendments empowered the Student Body President to approve appropriations during the summer session of up to $2000. This was an increase from last year’s precedent of $1600 with a limit of $800 per appropriation.
The purpose of this change was to ease the difficulty of funding expenses while UHR is out of session during the Summer.
“There is a lot of programming during the summer such as FASET,” said INTA representative Julianne Camacho.
According to Camacho, without the ability of the President to approve this funding during the summer, UHR would normally be required to wait for two weeks into the school year at which point the funding would be much less helpful.
“It has been a problem [getting materials] for FASET,” Camacho said.