Featured Photo by Gus Wright
Story by Gus Wright
On Thursday, MTSU’s Student Government held its 1st committee meeting of the New Year, with Tre Hargett — Tennessee’s Secretary of State— speaking at the meeting.
Before the meeting officially began, Secretary Hargett greeted Middle Tennessee State University students and members of the American Democracy Project, thanking them for their support and asking them about their work. Hargett then started the meeting, talking about the importance of voter registration, stating that “if you don’t do politics, they’ll be done to you.”
He then went on to thank the efforts of the forty-four volunteers and faculty that helped in Student voter registration last fall, securing MTSU a second win as the top four-year public university in Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s College Voter Registration Competition. Hargett then went on to present a glass plaque to SGA President Jada Powell at the association’s weekly meeting held in the Student Union Parliamentary Room.
Before thanking everyone involved and leaving, Hargett discussed the importance of being politically active, saying that “You’re 18 years old, I’m the Secretary of State, we have the same amount of votes.”
After Hargett’s departure, the council was brought into session, with Powell speaking first.
The first order of business was instituting Trinity Henderson as Speaker Pro-Temp, with her previously holding the position of Vice President. Additional voting was discussed, with voting for a student life representative and a new vice president planned to happen next week. New committee members were also allowed to speak. The next order of business was mostly the better utilization of committee and Student Government resources — with there being mentions of project improvements for Academic Affairs and Public Relations committees and discussion of bringing back Senator Synopsis — and giving back to students in some way.
Powell then talked about new legislation, with Club of the Month being mentioned as a strong contender, but with most major projects being in the works by committee members.
Trinity Henderson then spoke, thanking everyone in attendance for their new position, and then brought up new state legislation related to MTSU. This included the 2023 Legislature being in session, the possible implementation of the BlueID as a voting card, the possible legalization of Marijuana in Tennessee, and the Safe Tennessee Student Act.
Trinity also asked senators what of their accomplishments were they proud of so far, with Senator Alex Laudeman saying he was proud of his voting initiative.
Gus Wright is the SGA reporter for MTSU Sidelines.
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