The Undergraduate Student Congress amended officer compensation qualifications, prevented election commission members from endorsing SGA candidates and appointed new members at its Tuesday evening meeting.
Preventing compensation alterations
The news: Congress updated the “SGA Compensation Alteration Delay Act” to prevent compensation alterations from taking effect until a regular election or appointment of certain positions has occurred.
The bill states that the policy applies to undergraduate student congress officers, Graduate Student Senate officers, SGA president or vice president, or any other elected or appointed committee chair position.
Congress passed a version of this bill at its Oct. 22 meeting. According to the authors of the bill Henry Christiansen, campus outreach, safety and concerns committee chair, and Rep. Coleman Morgan, the Graduate Student Senate did not approve the bill and an amendment was made after a joint committee session, which noted that any alterations to a stipend for a SGA member would be based solely upon the requirements of the position itself rather than the merits of the officer.
What they’re saying: Christiansen said the adjustment will keep Congress from giving raises directly to specific members, instead accounting for the responsibilities of the position.
“It's basically just saying that any stipend increases are just because of the duties of the job, because of the single person in the job currently,” Christiansen said.
Ways and Means Committee Chair Jacob Schonfield disagreed on whether the bill should be passed.
“As it stands right now, we have the ability as a body to put whatever effective date we want on legislation, …” Schonfield said. “It's completely up to us when things go into effect. Why should we hamstring future representatives from deciding when it's appropriate for things to go into effect?”
Morgan said the bill would not prevent Congress from making changes to the compensation of certain positions.
“I would say this isn't hamstringing them at all by giving them a pretty clear timeline on when any raises should be going into effect,.” Morgan said
Morgan said giving raises relies on Congress finances. He addressed Schonfield and said SGA cannot just pull the funding out of itstheir pockets in order to give the body raises.
“If this money is coming from primary or auxiliary funding, that's money that's supposed to go directly to RSOs, who're supposed to get funding from their student representatives,” Morgan said.
The vote: Congress approved the bill with a vote of 26-6-0. Schonfield and Representatives Ava Burnett, Mecca Fisher, Nadesh Vaithianathan, Andy Wang and Isaiah Wick voted against the bill.
Election Commission Expectations Revision Act of 2025
The news: Congress amended the Election Commission Expectations Revision Act of 2025 to prevent any member of the election commission from publicly endorsing or criticizing any SGA election candidate.
What they're saying: External Affairs Committee Chair Hope Rhoads, who authored the bill, said the bill is to remove bias from members who serve on the election commission when dealing with things like resignations, impeachments and reasons to leave office.
“People within the election commission, including the Election Commissioner and the ex-officio member, get to sit in on these meetings,” Rhoads said. “(Ex officio members) don't get to vote and neither does the election commission, but they still have a voice in those decisions.”
Christiansen expressed concern for the bill, questioning the definition of “endorse.” Rhoads said she had no opposition to that, but that it would need a separate piece of legislation.
The vote: Congress approved the bill with a vote of 31-0-0. Rep. Ayden Pruitt did not vote on this bill.
Post election appointments
The news: The Session CXIV Post-Election Appointment Act appointed the new members to the Undergraduate Student Congress.
• Vincent Le, Associate
• Syed Mohammad, Associate
• Alonzo Del Pozzo, Associate
• Isaiah Wick, Associate
• Chrsitain Toombs, Associate
• Khrish Patel, Associate
• Angel Martinez, Arts and Sciences Representative
• Jayden Bass, Arts and Sciences Representative
What they're saying: Chair Caleb Robinson, who authored the bill, said the bill was a regular appointment to fill vacancies.
“This bill just appoints associates and representatives after the election (to) fill some basic seats,” Robinson said, “and then we offered an associate seat to everybody who did not win their election and was not in a district with an open seat.”
The vote: Congress approved the bill with a vote of 31-0-0.
Cleanliness survey
The news: The OU Student and Faculty Class Cleanliness Survey Act of 2025 authorized an anonymous survey of the student body and faculty about the cleanliness of classrooms and lecture halls.
The survey will ask about overall cleanliness of classrooms and lecture halls, how frequently they are cleaned and how the cleanliness of campus facilities affects learning.
The survey, which will be released via Qualtrics and emailed through the university’s mass mailing system, will be conducted from Thursday through Dec. 3.
What they're saying: Rep. Ian Cox, who authored the bill, said he hopes the survey will address issues like the crickets in Gaylord Hall.
“What this bill is going to do is to potentially address issues that have been noticed but nobody's doing anything about it,” Cox said, “and address other issues in colleges that hey, maybe a few people have noticed it as well.”
The vote: Congress approved the bill with a vote of 36-0-0.
Veterans Day resolution
The news: The Veterans Day Resolution of 2025 officially recognized Nov. 11 as Veterans Day.
Copies of the resolution will be sent to OU President Joseph Harroz Jr., Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students David Surratt, the OU Board of Regents, OU Veteran Student Services, student media, Military Connected and Veterans Student Success Center and the Students' Veteran Association.
What they're saying: Associate Angel Tovilla, who co-authored the bill, said he wanted to do something for the student body.
“This bill is basically acknowledging Veterans Day,” Tovilla said. “It just seemed really important.”
The vote: Congress approved the bill with a vote of 36-0-0. Newly appointed representatives voted on this bill.
This story was edited by Keaton Shaffer and Ana Barboza.
