Student groups at Fort Hays State are an integral part in the education of students. These groups give students the chance to learn their craft in a hands-on environment, while also assisting struggling students within their fields of study. These groups are funded by money allocated by the Student Government Association, or SGA. The student groups provide the SGA with an estimated amount of funding that they will need in the upcoming year, after which the SGA provides the groups with the amount that they are willing to provide. This is a democratic way of going about the process, but some groups find themselves without proper funding, one of which being the Society of Physics Students.
The Society of Physics Students is a national association that has chapters at many universities around the nation. Much of the funding that comes from the association itself goes towards the funding of trips and the purchasing of equipment for students to use, and the funding that the group would receive from the SGA would go towards paying the departments tutors.
Unfortunately, this may not be the case for the group in 2018. In the SGA’s most recent listing of group allocations, the Society of Physics Students were listed as receiving $0 in funding from the SGA.
A member of The Society of Physics Students told a TMN reporter that, “in their bylaws, it has been stated that they should not be able to pre-allocate money for tutoring. It should be done by the departments themselves. Usually, it wasn’t a problem, and they (the SGA) didn’t follow it too much. This year they followed it. They didn’t give us funding but told us that we should have asked for an EOF. With an EOF, then department asks the school for the necessary funding, instead of the SGA. They haven’t had EOFs for a long time, but it was just reintroduced this year.
However, since it was just started this year, we were not aware that we needed an EOF, and that they decided to follow the bylaw.” The Society of Physics Students has requested that the SGA reconsider their lack of funding, and is asking for half of their usual funding. The group will contact the school for an EOF hereafter, and the SGA will give the group their answer in the coming week.
For TMN, I am Kraig Pierce.