SA Senate Seeks Structural Changes, Bylaw Revamp for Spring

By Lucienne Burns | December 1, 2025 

A presentation given to the senate about varying student government structures across SUNY campuses.  

Photo Credit: Lucienne Burns | The ASP

In anticipation of the spring semester, the Student Association (SA) Senate passed legislation at its second to last meeting (11/19) to improve its organization and committee operations. This legislation includes a bill that was passed revamping the Senate bylaws, an ongoing effort of the Rules Committee throughout the semester. 

The meeting began with a presentation, depicting fundamental governing documents of other SUNY schools, showing that UAlbany’s SA Senate documents differ from other SUNY institutions as they are more decentralized. 

This presentation set up reasoning to introduce the bylaw revamp bill to the Senate. This is a bill adopting revisions to the current bylaws, which would address issues of clarity, structural inconsistencies and constitutional requirements, according to the bill’s memo. 

“I want to emphasize that right now, under our current bylaws, we are functioning illegally, so [the bill] needs to get passed,” said Jaden Burke, chair of the Rules Committee and a sponsor of the bill. Burke was additionally a part of a working group over the summer to begin restructuring bylaw efforts. 

Senate Chair Troy Serao explained the two consecutive vote processes for this constitutional change. In terms of governing documents, with the bylaw revamp, the Senate constitution will effectively be replaced by corporate bylaws.

In order for this bylaw revamp to go into effect, it has to pass through the Senate twice and then voted on and amended if necessary by the student body. 

“None of this will take effect until it passes two consecutive semesters in this chamber and then goes out to the voters at the end of the year in the general election, as required by our current governing structure, because we can't change anything until everything passes,” Serao said. 

Serao also explained key structural changes stemming from the revamp with particular committees, explaining that the Supreme Court and the Elections Commission will be in the Senate. 

“If [the Supreme Court and Elections Commission] are not on the Senate, they’re not on the board,” Serao said. “And in order to have binding authority over anything, to be a committee of the board is what it’s called, the members that are on the committee need to be on the board, so we need to have them on the senate – on the board – so then they can still maintain their function.”

Besides this change in structure, Serao said that nothing else is really changing– the bylaws are just being updated for clarity and consistency throughout, and to be in compliance with NYS law. 

The bill ultimately passed the senate with 36 “yes” votes, 0 “no” votes and three abstentions. 

Next, the senate voted on handbooks to go along with the bylaw revamp, passing the bill as well. The bill hosts 10 policy handbooks senators can use for reference for targeted, specific issues. 

Burke, also sponsoring this bill, stated that implementing the handbooks will allow for more concise guidelines and assistance with specific issues. 

“Currently, these are all combined into over a 200-page document, as they are the current bylaws. This would allow for specified inquiries and better accessibility,” Burke said, referencing the handbook bill. 

More restructuring legislation was also passed, transforming two subcommittees of the senate into full-time, standing committees. 

Through the legislation, The Subcommittee on First-Year Experience (FYE) changes into the Committee on First-Year Experience and Innovation (FYEI), its goal remaining to enhance support for new students at the university. 

The bill, along with amending wording to accurately reflect committee instead of subcommittee, hosts additional sections implementing conducting research for Senate purposes to better measure constituent concerns. This bill also included a decrease to the number of allocated absences from committee meetings. 

“Attendance matters. Showing up matters,” said Alana Borrero, the sponsor of the bill. “If you cannot show up for your own senators, there is no way that you can show up for constituents.” 

The bill for the Subcommittee of Government Operations (SOGO) changes it into the Committee of Government Operations (COGO), a full-standing committee, with an addition of extended collaboration. 

“So [the bill] adds the responsibility of kind of reaching out to other SUNY schools and seeing what they have going on with their student associations, with their student governments, and bringing ideas back," said sponsor Grace Augenstern. 

Another change the bill allows for this new full-standing committee is to jointly investigate with the Rules Committee. 

Among the structural and document changes, the Supreme Court will have to find a new chief justice for the spring semester. 

Chief Justice James Cuddy announced he is graduating at the end of the fall semester and therefore vacating the position, meaning Deputy Justice Milexy Campos will serve as Interim Chief Justice during the search. 

In addition to this legislative agenda, 10 appropriations bills were passed at the meeting, granting clubs’ funding requests among the governing documents and structural committee alterations.