This meeting of the Student Government Association was called to order on Thursday, October 8th, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the Black and Gold Room, Memorial Union on the campus of Fort Hays State University.
Legislation
Old Business: There was no old business for this meeting.
New Business: There was no new business for this meeting.
Reports
Executive:
President Ulises Gonzalez welcomed the nine new senators that will be installed at next week’s meeting. He, as well as Treasurer Jacob Taylor and Campus Relations Rebecca Vincent, had the opportunity to attend faculty senate where they were able to talk about the gun survey. Gonzalez will be working with The American Democracy Project to do a Town hall meeting to raise awareness about this issue, and is looking more into the logistics with Senator Agnew and Senator Lawrence. This Tuesday, Gonzalez was able to start a partnership with Tiger Media Network to film a “Meet Your SGA” segment. This will provide monthly updates on what is happening within SGA, and give students the chance to get to know the executive board and senators.
Vice President Molly Morgan spoke about the Senator Auction, which is partnered with the United Way, and is to take place on Tuesday, October 13th at 7:00 p.m. in Cody Commons.
Treasurer Jacob Taylor provided senators with the treasurer report.
Chief of Staff Lauren Wiebe thanked everyone for helping with the freshman and KAMS booths.
Campus Relations Director Rebecca Vincent awarded a senator spotlight to senator Vivian Agnew. Vincent is currently working on an experimental learning community which was formally service learning, with the provost. She is also serving on another committee that will help reform freshman seminar classes. She reminds senators that Time to be a Tiger week is coming up the first week in November.
Legislative Affairs Director Kade Megaffin shared with senators that a Higher Education application will be coming soon.
Community Relations Director Lizette Avalos has been working on promoting election results on social media platforms.
Committees:
Appropriations Committee will have a bill up for the first reading next week.
Senate Affairs Committee did not meet but are planning their next meeting.
Student Relations & Involvement Committee passed a sign in sheet around regarding the United Way events.
Legislative & Political Action Committee began to discuss the fee proposal. They will be meeting next week for further details.
Speakers/Open Forum
SGA had a guest speaker from the Honors College speak with them at the meeting. He shared with the senators a proposal to join in the new scholars fund. A scholars fund is an honors committee with Fort Hays Honors Society, which is the largest organization on campus. The objective of the scholars fund is to have a representative from each organization to attend bi-weekly meetings, with the main purpose being to build up honors and academic organizations on campus. As a new member, organizations would have the opportunity to add input towards the constitution and bylaws of the program. The next meeting will be held in the Black & Gold room two Tuesdays from now; on October 20th at 6:00 p.m.
During the open forum, senators discussed Tiger Media Network’s use of allocations to cover the SGA meetings. Senator Hand brought up that they had allocated money for a film crew but was confused as to how the money was being used because there was not a recording of the meetings being filmed. Treasurer Taylor explained that the money is actually a student fee line, so SGA can not control how TMN uses the film crew. President Gonzalez shared that he met with Tiger Media Network last week and came to an agreement that there will be a reporter to take notes and pictures at SGA meetings.
Also discussed in open forum, the addition of a new college at Fort Hays. Dr. Nichols shared that the addition of a fifth college has been voted down for the current time being, and they are trying to decide what they want to do in regards to it. Open forum discussion also brought about the idea of possibly implementing different recycling methods for the dorms, and looking into the improvement of already-existing, campus-wide recycling programs.
Announcements
The following announcements were made during Thursday’s meeting:
The American Democracy Project is hosting a Times Talk on the 14th of October, which will be held at 12:30 p.m. in Forsyth Library. Amber White will be speaking of “Cultures not Costumes”. The first 25 people will receive free Pizza.
Tuesday, October 13th at 4:00 p.m. in Albertson 169, the General Education committee will be holding a forum with Provost Glenn, and share their vision and strategic plan about their committee.
Jana’s Campaign is hosting Bystander Intervention Training on Thursday, October 15th in Black & Gold room from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Advanced registration is required.
Alpha Kappa Psi is holding the annual Blood Drive on October 20th and 21st.
Open Mic Night will be next week on Monday at 7:30 p.m in Cody Commons.
SHRM will be having a speaker on November 11th to talk about “Branding yourself” at 7:30 p.m. in Cody Commons.