The Falcon   |   Volume 83, Issue 53

Published 5/29/13   |   Log In

Senate adds ASSP position

Vice President of Ministries Audrey Riddle explains to Senate on Monday what the new ministry publicist’s role will be.
Photo credit: CURTIS SIMPSON IV/The Falcon.

By ALLISON NORTHROP, Assistant News Editor

Published: March 6, 2013

According to Vice President of Ministries Audrey Riddle, 57 percent of students who do not hold a student leadership position at Seattle Pacific have never participated in a ministry event.

“How do we provide more onramps for students to be involved in these?” Riddle asked on Monday night.

At last week’s Senate meeting, Riddle proposed a change to the bylaws that would add a new position of ministry publicist in hopes of “bridging the gap” between the students and ministry programs.

Because it was a bylaw change, the ASSP constitution requires the change to be tabled for a week and then voted on at the following meeting.

Sophomore Adam Hutchinson asked Riddle why there was a need for the position.

“Just very bluntly, why is this not part of your job?” Hutchinson said.

Riddle said as the university grows, the vice president of ministries position cannot sustain itself without someone working on the marketing side of ministries.

“The tension is, there are not enough hours in a day,” Riddle said. “Twelve to 15 hours [per week] of my time are already scheduled in meetings. The other is planning the different events.”

The question of compensation was brought up during the discussion.

President Nate Strong said the added bylaw the senators were voting on would not determine how much the ministry publicist would be paid. The Allocation Board would recommend the stipend amount, and Senate would approve Allocation Board’s recommendation, just like other ASSP stipend leadership positions.

“We’re not voting on a stipend or a payment,” Strong said. “We leave it up to Allocation Board. Then Allocation Board will come back to Senate.”

The new publicist would work in conjunction with the public relations manager and the ASSP publicist, according to current Public Relations Manager junior Laura Nile.

The bylaw passed with Riddle abstaining from the vote.

The senators also passed a bylaw change that created the potential for the Outdoor Recreational Program coordinator to hire an Outdoor Recreational Program assistant. The assistant will work under the outdoor recreational coordinator.

On the last item on their agenda, the senators continued their discussion on a proposed ASSP constitutional change.

The change, proposed by current Vice President of Finance senior Jacob Redding, would make it so that every year, the student body would vote on a treasurer position, knowing that the year after the person who served as treasurer would assume the role of vice president of finance.

After exceeding the 30-minute debate period, the senators decided to call a special meeting next Monday, a meeting not typically held because of finals.

During the 30-minute debate, the senators went over corrections Constitutional Advisory Board made to approve the constitutional amendment.

Part of the proposed amendment would also require the treasurer to be a part of Senate.

Since the treasurer would be a senator, another senator position would be added on top of the position to maintain balance.

The senators said the position would either be a senator at large or a freshman Senate position, with an election from the freshman class to be held the first two weeks of school.

“It allows the freshmen to speak into that and allows freshmen to be involved in Senate, and then you have a constituency,” Strong said.

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