SGA wasted no time getting their first meeting of the semester out of the way on Monday night.

The meeting, which lasted a mere 23 minutes, currently stands as the shortest meeting of the 2012-2013 school year to date and centered around bringing in a tax lawyer to talk to students.

The lawyer, Lawrence Feld, is a professor at New York Law School in Manhattan and author of Tax Fraud and Evasion. He was suggested by Senator Jacqui Robinson in a recent meeting with SGA President Ryan Baerwalde and Vice President Amber Worthy.

“[He would] speak to the campus about how to file taxes, and how to avoid tax fraud and a lot of other things,” Worthy said.

When asked about the expenses, Robinson said that the lawyer would provide the service for free – provided that his travel and hotel expenses are covered.

Senator Tamelonie Thomas expressed her about concern why the SGA would fly someone in when they could bring in somebody from the area.

“If you take a look at the campus coupon book that we get, H&R Block hands out a coupon to students to file our taxes,” Thomas said. “I’m sure they could come and speak to us about taxes and tax fraud, and we wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of paying for travel and allocating money to organizations.”

Thomas was referring to H&R Block, who has a branch on North Gornto Road here in Valdosta, and has a coupon in the Campus Special coupon book handed out by the VSU Bookstore.