SGA Recap: Kish Says Recording Allowed, Public Safety Videos, and More -

By Patrick D. Lewis

The Student Government Association (SGA) held its final meeting of the year on December 1, 2025. The Senate passed two resolutions and three bills.

The public comment period featured several speakers expressing concerns about the Senate trying to ban recording in the chamber, and one person voicing their support for the resolution encouraging DPS to produce safety videos. One speaker said SGA should begin using the Comic Sans font in what appeared to be a satirical speech. The student left the chamber after being told he had gone over his time and being approached by SGA Chief of Staff Max Morris.

SGA President Michael Kish said he thought “we’ve all got ourselves in a little bit of a tizzy here” during his comments. “Some of the behavior both on and off the Senate floor, in the gallery, and then on the Senate floor, has been a little ridiculous. And it contributes, not to a culture of service or to take it seriously, but to mockery.”

Kish said, though, that there “are a lot of people who are doing serious things,” and mentioned executive initiatives are putting together care packages for Brookland residents.

Kish also addressed the recent controversy over whether recording is permitted in the Senate chamber.

“Last week or two weeks ago, a resolution was passed that protested the university policy. In my process of advocacy for that, the university said, ‘guess what, we’re keeping the policy, you’re allowed to record.’ Alright, we’re gonna listen to the rules. We do things by the rules here, or at least we try to.”

“University policy, on recording, states that in an open meeting, you are able to record. We’re gonna follow the university policy, it’s as simple as that,” said Kish. His comments came after the Senate, at its last meeting, voted to approve a resolution and a bill looking to ban recording and quoting senators.

“You know, if we internally are being ridiculous, and then externally, people are being ridiculous,” he said. “It’s just gonna get worse until the whole thing collapses in on its own. I think we can avoid that, I think Vice President Moskowski has already begun to do so. If you are disruptive, you will be asked to leave the chamber. If you are not disruptive, you will not be asked to leave the chamber.”

The first item was approval of the meeting minutes from the last three meetings. Minutes are normally approved at the beginning of each meeting for the preceding meeting, but the minutes for the first three meetings were not written until this meeting. It is not fully clear why the delay happened. Senator Jack Hermes encouraged senators to vote against approving the minutes because he did not believe they were detailed enough. At the last meeting, Hermes had expressed his belief that the minutes should be the only record of meetings.

Senator Emma Bonney moved to adopt the first meeting’s minutes, but the motion was not seconded. The second meeting’s minutes were approved, as were the third meeting’s minutes.

The first item of legislation was sponsored by Senator Austin Janssen and cosponsored by Senators Jack Hermes and Dion Sinodinos. The resolution, “A Resolution to Improve the Visual Design of Cardinal Station,” urges the university to redesign the user interface of Cardinal Students and “adopt simplified and intuitive navigational layouts to enhance the efficiency of locating academic, financial, and administrative information.”

Janssen, in his remarks, “This resolution is really important to me and a lot of people I’ve been talking around campus with.” He said Cardinal Station looks like it was made in 2010 and said he is confident that the university administration will look to make updates.

Senator Otto said he believed the resolution was trying to “fix a problem that doesn’t exist” and said he didn’t think the interface is in need of a “major overhaul.” Hermes replied that beauty is transcendental and “points to the divine,” and Cardinal Station should be beautiful.

The resolution passed 15-1, with Otto voting against.

The second resolution, “A Resolution for the Department of Public Safety to create Public Safety Videos for Students,” was sponsored by Senator Fiona Tierney and co-sponsored by Janssen and Senator Nathan Shehadeh. The legislation encourages DPS to produce “a series of videos instructing students on safe practices both on and off campus, sent to students at the beginning of the year and available to all members of the university community at any time on the university website.”

The resolution cited the area crime and recent car break-ins and assaults on campus. In her remarks, Tierney said there had also been thefts from inside buildings. “Once things started happening on campus, I started wondering about how these things could be prevented,” she said. “I wanna make sure that everyone can feel safe while they’re navigating off campus… since we have an open campus, the crimes that happen off campus they can affect on campus as well.” Tierney said Kirk McLean, Chief of Campus Police and Associate V.P. for Public Safety and Emergency Management, agreed that videos would help increase student awareness.

Senator Gabriela Sousa said she works on the university’s social media team and that a recent video they posted about car thefts garnered only 72 views. She expressed concern about how much of an impact they might have. Tierney said she hopes these videos will be posted on social media as well as on school websites and disseminated via email at the beginning of the school year.

The resolution passed unanimously.

Three bills followed the two resolutions. The first of the three, sponsored by Senator Bennett Bert, addressed “the Spirit of the Bylaws Regarding Vacancies in the Senate.” The bill sought to ensure that the Senate committees were given a chance to submit a nomination for Senate vacancies, not only the SGA President, as has frequently happened in recent years.

Bert said the bill only changes one word in the bylaws, which is changing them to say the president “may” ask committees for nominations to “shall” ask them, which he said would lead to a more diverse applicant pool. The bill passed unanimously.

The second bill, also sponsored by Bert, looked to “Clarify Procedures for Committee Chair Succession.” The bill looked to amend the Senate bylaws to set the following procedure for filling a committee chair vacancy: “In case of resignation, or permanent incapacitation, of any Committee Chair, the committee from which said Committee Chair is from will hold elections within the committee to elect a new Committee Chair, except for the Committee on Rules and Administration. If, due to resignation, vacancy, or permanent incapacitation, there is only one remaining member of any committee, except for the Committee on Rules and Administration, the remaining member shall automatically become Chair.”

The bill, which sought to make it so that committees elected a new chair within the group, was also approved unanimously. The Committee on Rules and Administration was exempted because that committee is chaired by the Senate’s president pro tempore, a position elected by all of the senators.

The final bill, again sponsored by Bert and this time cosponsored by Hermes, looked to “Clarify Procedures for Removal from the Chamber for Disorderly Conduct.” It changed the bylaws to give examples of disorderly conduct, such as “wearing clothing with profanity, any individual talking out of turn, [or] any individual eating loudly.” The bill also defined it as “conduct that the presiding officer determines to be such, as well as any conduct prohibited by an act of the Senate in accordance with Article V.”

In his remarks, Bert said, “This is ensuring that we have autonomy over our own meetings, making sure that they stay orderly, and making sure we have the power to clear the chamber if we see fit,” when he said was previously something in the hands of the Vice President. Senator Felipe Avila said he supported the bill.

This bill also passed unanimously.

The meeting ended with updates from Vice President Moskowski and Senate committee chairs, as well as an open forum for senators. Moskowski thanked senators for working with him after his unexpected ascension to the role of vice president last month, and no committees had held meetings since the last Senate meeting. There were thus no updates other than Bert giving some updates from his committee, which is currently made up only of him.

Bert also announced that he will graduate on Friday and is thus resigning from the Senate. “It’s been my pleasure to represent the Class of 2026,” he said. “I think we’ve done a lot of good.”

Hermes made some comments criticizing The Tower, which he called the “Tower of Babel.” He has been critical of the paper at previous meetings in the wake of The Tower reporting on statements Hermes made at prior meetings, including alluding to “nazism” and appearing to promote underage drinking. Senator Emma Bonney encouraged senators to participate in university days of service and donate to Cardinal Closet. Avila said he is working with the administration to get longer hours for the Nursing School building and to address issues in the nursing program.

The next SGA meeting will be held on January 26, 2026.