Speaker Kept In Dark Over Controversial SGA Major Swaps

A serious communication breakdown has surfaced within UCF’s Student Government Senate, after Speaker Anthony King admitted he was kept in the dark about several senators changing their majors out of the college they were elected to represent.

KnightNews.com previously reported that SGA senators were believed to have been changing their majors temporarily to gain access to senate seats within the College of Engineering. We now know, according to multiple SGA sources, that a dean within the College of Engineering placed holds on at least one senator’s student account until that senator resolved the situation to the dean’s satisfaction or resigned.

But when we asked King directly about whether the dean was at all involved with the controversy, the speaker appeared completely unaware of the dean’s actions.

“It’s from the advisor letting me know of the situation, [the senators’ major changes] nothing was communicated from me from the dean, all it was, was the advisor letting me know which senators had different majors…” King said.

According to SGA Statutes, senators must advise the speaker when they change their major to ensure they are still eligible for their seat. King said these senators who changed their major, however, failed to tell him of the switch, and that it wasn’t until the SGA advisor reported the changes to King during the once a semester eligibility checks that he found out. King then issued the senators who failed the eligibility requirement non-compliance statements, which require the senators to either fix the problem or face other consequences.

We emailed College of Engineering Interim Dean Dr. Michael Georgiopoulos at 1 p.m. on Jan. 8 to get a comment from the College of Engineering on the situation, but so far we have yet to receive a response.

KnightNews.com will continue to investigate these matters that exist within the SGA senate. At this time, we have been informed that no senators have resigned.

View our interview with Speaker Anthony King below.

For more on the situation within SGA, click here.