Senate has tabled Bill 13-20, which aims to help grow Interfraternity Council (IFC) formal recruitment by restricting the open bidding process in the fall semesters.

“Right now, IFC has a 365-day open bidding process,” said Taylor Marks, senator and author of the bill. “In order to restrict this process, we have to trump the National Interfraternity Council (NIC) policy and add these restrictions to the handbook for it to take effect.”

Marks’ bill outlines the specific times of restriction, were the policy change to take place.

“Open bidding will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on the Thursday prior to Residence Hall move-in day of the fall semester, at which point open bidding will be closed,” the bill states. “The open bidding process will reopen 10 days after the IFC formal Bid Day.”

Austin Smith, member of Alpha Tau Omega and student senator, spoke briefly about the role the NIC has.

“IFC is governed by the NIC,” Smith said. “They do state that recruitment should be year-round, but the loophole is having a university policy that disagrees with that.

“Personally, I don’t support this because I feel like NIC policies govern the IFC policies for a reason.”

Marks said the proposed policy change is in no way meant to dismiss the NIC policy, though.

“We’re just looking to restrict it for a four to five week period,” he said.

Marks said he does not believe this change would be in place for fall 2013 formal recruitment, but that it could benefit future recruitments.

Will Nash, senate pro-tempore, said he agrees.

“This will benefit the guys who are looking at going Greek when they get to UNA,” Nash said. “It could force them to go through formal recruitment and the process.”

Nash and Marks said the policy change has been voted on twice by the IFC now.

“Six out of seven fraternities voted for this during the IFC meeting,” Marks said.

IFC President and Sigma Chi member Alex Gouin said he thinks incorporating this restriction will improve the number of guys who go through formal recruitment each fall.

“When I went through recruitment in fall of 2009, there were 90 or so guys,” he said. “It’s just been declining ever since. I think there were only around 16 guys who did formal recruitment last year.”

Marks said he agreed that formal recruitment numbers are not where they should be.

“The numbers have been really low at this university during formal recruitment and rush over the last few years,” he said.

Gouin said this restriction was put in place last year before formal recruitment, and the organization saw a rise in the number of males registered for formal recruitment. However, he said the NIC informed the IFC that they were not allowed to have this restriction without first having it in place through the university.

“As soon as open bidding came back after we found out, the numbers for formal recruitment went way down,” he said.

Current SGA adviser Kim Greenway said she would recommend waiting before taking further action with the bill.

“If it doesn’t hurt the timeline any, I would recommend tabling it,” she said.

Bill 13-20 is currently tabled, but will be discussed again before the end of the semester.

Senate also discussed Bill 13-19, submitted by Nash and Senator Sarah Emerson. The bill, which failed in Senate, sought to amend the current Code of Laws Chapters 204 and 403, regarding elections and duties of both the Senate and UPC Pro-Tempores.

An update on the upcoming Lion Night, planned for Thursday, April 18, has the Local Saints, Band O’ Brothers and Hunter Jackson booked to provide music and entertainment at the event, while 16 businesses downtown will be offering discounts or deals, according to the March 14 meeting minutes.