By Sarah Jarmer
This meeting of the Student Government Association was called to order on Thursday, March 10th, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. in the Black and Gold Room, Memorial Union on the campus of Fort Hays State University.
Legislation
Old Business: Bills 16/S/111-16/S/113 regarding funds for the Global Justice Learning Community, the Fort Hays Association of Nursing Students, and Alpha Gamma Delta were up for second reading by the Appropriations Committee at Thursday’s meeting. Each passed by unanimous consent. Bill 16/S/114 dealing with Allocations was also up for second reading on Thursday. Student organizations were able to apply for these funds ahead of time and had to be present for the entirety of the SGA meeting in order to be allocated funds. After several amendments were made to bill 16/S/114 it passed with 25 senators in favor and 2 opposed.
New Business: Bills 16/S/115 and 16/S/116 put up by Appropriations were up for first reading at Thursday’s meeting.
Reports
Executive:
President Ulises Gonzalez welcomed everyone to the SGA meeting and explained to the student organization representatives how the allocation process will work for this year. Gonzalez recognized the Allocations Committee for their hard work in making these challenging decisions. Finally, Gonzalez announced he will not be going up for presidential re-election next year.
Vice President Molly Morgan shared that she’s been working on setting up the Public Safety and Awareness fee, as well as, planning new senator orientation training.
Treasurer Jacob Taylor encouraged organizations to visit with him if they had questions on funding.
Legislative Affairs Director Emily Brandt told students that she serves as a liaison between the student body and the Kansas Board of Regents. Brandt also shared the Lifeline 911 passed at the capitol.
Campus Relations Director Rebecca Vincent told the senate that she has been working on the United Way week that she hosted last fall.
Community Relations Director Lizette Avalos described many of the projects she has been working on this year including a partnership with the Hays PD for Party Registration and planning The Big Event. Avalos’s most recent project was the spring break party registration awareness tables that appeared in the union.
Committee:
The Appropriations Committee did not meet but had several bills up for reading.
The Senate Affairs Committee met with President Gonzalez to work on recruiting new senators to fill the empty seats.
Student Relations and Involvement Committee worked on The Big Event scheduled for April 30th.
The Legislative and Political Action Committee did not meet but shared that LPAC is working on fee reviews.
The Allocations Committee worked long hours and thanked everyone who was in attendance at the meeting.
The Elections Committee announced that intent to run forms will go live on March 25th at 4:30p.m. and that elections will take place April 13th and 14th.
Installation of New Members
No new members were installed at Thursday’s meeting.
Speakers/Open Forum
President Mirta Martin and University Relations representative Lyndsey Dugan were guest speakers at Thursday’s meeting. President Martin gave an overview of the re-engineering process and branding developments that FHSU has been going through over the past year. President Martin added that student organizations must go through Dugan to have designs approved for t-shirts and flyers. Designs must be submitted at least five days in advance for review, and the purpose is to change the look of the university to have a better appeal to students. Finally, President Martin provided a description of the new book for Fort Hays State University. Lyndsey Dugan showed examples of the new book, and also explained the reasoning behind the re-branding process. Dugan shared that the university would like all tiger logos to be consistent and that approval for flyers, t-shirts, and posters must go through her for approval so that Fort Hays organizations are able to represent the university in the best way possible.