by Alissa Davis
Staff Writer
The University of Houston Students' Association continued structuring the 34th Senate Wednesday by filling the director of public relations position and announcing senators' committee assignments.
Brenda Johnson was unanimously voted director of public relations and immediately resigned her Honors College senate seat. She said SA needs a better system of communication between senators and their constituents and plans to work on better advertising for town hall meetings.
"Initially, it's going to be hard since town hall meetings don't start until September," Johnson said. "But we'll be working on it during the summer."
Town hall meetings, held monthly during fall and spring semesters, provide an opportunity for students to voice their opinions to the senators. The senators are then able to take these concerns back to the Senate for discussion. Chairperson nominees for the four Senate committees were also announced. All nominees were unanimously accepted by the Senate.
Committee chairs are Technology Sen. Allison Beauvais, Academic Affairs; Humanities, Fine Arts and Communication Sen. Donald LeGrand, Internal Affairs; Business Sen. Kathryn Alvarado, Student Life; and At-Large Sen. Audrey King, University Administration and Finance.
Senators are required to serve on at least one of these four committees and assignments were also announced at the meeting. Since assignments were just announced, no new legislation was introduced, Speaker of the Senate Nathan Wittman said.
"Tonight, we wanted to get the chairs put in place, but I know personally of four senators who are already in the middle of writing legislation," Wittman said.
A proposal for a tuition increase, to be brought in front of the UH System Board of Regents today, was presented to senators by Student Regent Tom Cassidy. He asked for feedback on the proposal to take to the board meeting this morning.
SA President Natalie Merritt emphasized the importance of senator input on the issue. "Please remember that you are answering to the students here and that fee changes and fee raises are something that they really do care about."
Wittman announced dates for two legislative writing workshops to be held during the summer. He said the workshops will teach new senators how to be more effective by explaining how to write legislative bills and basic parliamentary procedure.
A Students' Association retreat is also in the works for the fall semester, Wittman said. The retreat is an annual SA tradition, even though no retreat was held in 1996.
"It allows the senators to sit down and have no distractions," Wittman said. "That way we can set a goal and talk about things we want to get accomplished."
staff writer Lisa M. Chmiola
contributed to this story.