The entity the University of Central Florida Student Government Association has paid tens of thousands of dollars over the last several years may become a lot less powerful.
Currently, state university SGA’s that belong to the Florida Student Association can elect one of the member institution presidents to serve as the leader of FSA. That FSA leader automatically assumes a seat on the Florida Board of Governors, the entity which oversees the state’s 11 public universities.
But state lawmakers are moving to try to change the way college students are represented on the Florida Board of Governors.
A bill drafted in the Senate aimed to let the governor appoint the student representative to the board. But the measure was amended Monday to take the governor out of the process. Instead, the Board of Governors would organize a council of student body presidents and those students would select their representative. This would cut the FSA out of the process.
KnightNews.com hired a crew in Tallahassee to interview Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, who drafted the amendment. She told us the new version of her plan takes politics out of the process.
UCF already pays for its own lobbyist, GrayRobinson. So, if the FSA loses its ability to elect a BOG representative, it’s unclear whether the UCF SGA senate would continue to pay to belong to that lobbying group. A litte over a year ago, KnightNews.com exposed how it appeared FSA hadn’t even updated its website since 2004. Since then, the organization had a new website made.
The bill is a proposed constitutional amendment. That means it will need a three-fifths vote in the House and Senate to make it onto the election ballot this November. If it gets on the ballot, it would need 60 percent of the vote to pass.
The FSA released a statement on its Facebook page earlier this month blasting the idea of amending the constitution over this issue.
“Amending the constitution is not only a terrible idea in and of itself, but the product of doing so would be damaging to students who are not enrolled at Florida State University and the University of Florida,” the FSA statement read.
Right now, under Florida’s Constitution, the governor has the power to appoint 14 people to the Board of Governors. Three others serve on the board, including the student representative.
