Student Senator Privileges

As stated in the membership section of the Constitution, the Student Affairs Committee of the Columbia University Senate (SAC) remains an integral part of the IGB, with the SAC liaison serving on the IGB Executive Board. In addition, because the SAC has the ultimate jurisdiction over the IGB, student senators are afforded the following privileges:

1. Similar to student groups recognized under IGB, student senators may request funding and/or resources (room reservations, etc.) for:

            a. Nascent initiatives born out of the SAC

            b. Initiatives and events that are currently operated by the SAC

            c. Reasonable initiatives that enrich the SAC as a whole (such as SAC socials, etc.)

2. Student senators may request the IGB to perform duties and responsibilities that are outside its currently defined scope or contrary to its normally operating procedures. Such special duties and responsibilities may be a one-time exception or may be implemented on a permanent basis (in which a Constitutional amendment is required if approved by the IGB). The student senator MUST bring up the matter to the SAC liaison, and the SAC liaison must inform the IGB Executive Board in writing to consider the matter. Please note that this is a very expansive power and must be used carefully to avoid setting long-term precedent.

3. The IGB as a whole reserves all rights to approve or deny any and all of the above requests. Matters of point #1 will be subject to a 1/2 majority vote by the voting members of the IGB and matters of point #2 will be subject to a 2/3 majority vote by the voting members of the IGB.

In all cases, student senators are required to fill out the IGB SAC Request Form, PDF Document and Word Document. In instances where a student senator is directly asking for funding for an activity (and not on behalf of a student group), the student senator should also submit an IGB SAC Funding Request Form, Excel Document. Please read the directions on the forms carefully. All requests are accepted on a rolling basis.

The most common request made by a student senator is typically on behalf of an IGB student group or a prospective student group, to bypass a deadline (such as a funding allocation or prospective application deadline). In such cases, on the IGB SAC Request Form, please mark "C" for Question 2, "change" for Question 4A, and "onetime exception" for Question 4B. You do not need to submit an IGB SAC Funding Request Form for this type of request.