The University of Kentucky’s Student Government Association (SGA) Full Senate voted to amend their constitution to expand Senate seats.
A total of six amendments were passed on Wednesday, Jan. 29, with A.2.2025, or Spring 2025 Constitutional Amendment No. 2, addressing accurate student representation within SGA’s Senate body.
“Historically, we’ve been a very small body, like 40 to 45 people,” John Hurley, graduate senator-at-large and academic and student affairs committee chair, said. “The framework we’ve established now makes it so the Senate is going to be minimum of around 54 . . . it is looking very likely it’ll be 60 plus.”
The proposal granted the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration and the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce one college-specific senator each, something neither institution has had.
Spring 2025 Constitutional Amendment No. 2 also calls for at least 10 first-year senator seats to be “allocated proportionally to the undergraduate, graduate and professional student populations,” according to the proposal.
Before the amendment passed, article one section one of SGA’s constitution only required there to be “at least five freshmen senators.”
During the meeting, there was a discussion about how accurate the term “freshman senator” was, with some senators saying credit hour qualifications and rules about transfer students weren’t representative of many first-year students.
The change in terms from “freshmen senators” to “first-year senators” is planned to be more clearly defined in later processes, according to Hurley.
The amendment also outlines a specific minimum of senator-at-large seats to 30, as there wasn’t a required quota before.
Along with expanding Senate seats, Hurley said Spring 2025 Constitutional Amendment No. 2 will also further empower the Senate.
“The other big change legislatively was that our senate executive council . . . used to be a little more fragment in what they could actually do,” Hurley said. “We returned a lot of their authority directly to the Senate, and that’s part of why we split apart our committees.”
One of the committees established through this amendment was the Outreach Committee, which will focus on engaging with the student body, according to Hurley.
“I think that’s gonna go a long ways to making us more visible,” Hurley said. “We want to remind people that they have representation at a more micro level that can get things done on the macro level.”
Kiersten White, senate chair and College of Health Sciences senator, said having senators serving specific colleges helps “each college have a voice,” as students in those colleges can consult their senators with any concerns unique to their program.
A goal of this representation is to help students become more involved in SGA, as White pointed out their meetings were open to the public.
White said she hoped students were aware of these opportunities to voice their concerns, and “of the different levels of government that represents them.”