The Oct. 8 General Assembly was the first to be held after the recent restructuring of the GA system. GAs from now on will be held biweekly, and no longer necessarily in the East Forum. A new forum that focuses more on discussion topics brought up by students will take place every other Sunday. The decision to relocate the GA and change the formatting was spearheaded by the Student Government Executive Board.

The GA began discussion with a constitutional amendment vote on officially recognizing Christine Dah-In Chung, the Officer of Student Activities, as a member of the Executive Board. Then, an open discussion was held about cultural Student Interest Groups, particularly regarding their role in the student community. Lastly, Junior Class Representative Kelly Murphy proposed an amendment to the Rules and Procedures to the Board of Appeals.

The majority of the GA was spent discussing cultural SIGs — the central question of the discussion was how to allocate their budgets.

There are currently 60 SIGs, out of which 15 are cultural SIGs. At least 10 new SIGs have been formed this semester. Dah-In Chung, who manages budget allocation for these SIGs, addressed how increasingly difficult it would be to manage budgeting if SIGs continued to be created at this rate, especially if students tried to make a national cultural SIG for every country rather than a regional cultural SIG. Supporters of cultural SIG regionalization included Senior Class Representative and ASEAN treasurer Yi Yi Yeap. Yeap argued that organizing large events is easier when cultural SIGs are merged. Yeap cited the upcoming merger between the Chinese Cultural Club, Dongari and ASEAN as a notable example. Others, notably members of the Polish and Pakistani communities, argued the importance of having national cultural SIGs. Some students brought up a possible issue with national SIGs becoming unintentionally exclusive.

Global Vice President Patrick Wee mentioned that in the past a student referendum was held which denied the Student Government the authority to define the exact role of cultural SIGs. Currently, when allocating SIG budgets, there is no preference for regional or national cultural SIGs. The budget is determined by the size of the SIG’s membership and how many students its events attract.

The meeting concluded with a discussion about the Board of Appeals during the New Business section. The discussion, surrounding the rights of students involved in BoA’s cases, was brought up after Junior Class Representative Kelly Murphy reportedly was approached by a student seeking advice earlier that week. Responding to Murphy’s requests for the BoA to publish Rules and Procedures, BoA member Yan Li thought that the official codification of the BoA’s Rules and Procedures could wait until the pending case was decided. Assistant Director of Student Life Victor Lindsay joined the conversation on the BoA, providing an uncharacteristic critique of the body over its lack of a legal code and seemingly unrestricted expansion of jurisdiction. Murphy proposed an amendment to the Rules and Procedures of the Student Government which stated:

“The Board of Appeals must have a Rules and Procedures document approved by two-thirds of the General Assembly before they can have any constitutionally binding decisions.”