STORY BY CORIE LYNN
The Student Government Association had their final meeting of the semester on May 9.
This was the last meeting of the year and also the night the new President and Vice President were sworn in.
Brad DeMers and Michael Musgrove, veteran senators of the SGA, took the oath of office at the close of the meeting. DeMers will serve as the new President while Musgrove will serve as Vice President.
Just before this President Schibi and Vice President Kirschbaum began with the tradition of passing on the baseball and bat to the new executive officers as well as giving a speech.
During this speech, Schibi and Kirschbaum outlined the meaning of the bat and ball tradition.
According to them, the baseball represents how the president, like the pitcher, is the one who makes things happen. The bat represents the Vice President must take on whatever comes their way, even though there will be days where they are facing curveballs. However, it’s with the ball and the bat that games are won.
DeMers and Musgrove then took their oath and the meeting adjourned.
The meeting began with a few words from University President, Dr. Tisa Mason.
She took the time to thank the senators for being outstanding students and for their participation in Student Government.
Dr. Mason also announced that there will not be an increase in tuition in the next semester. This announcement comes in light of Kansas legislation that will provide $33 million to higher education in the state. Of this amount, $2.5 million will be provided to Fort Hays State.
Following this, President Schibi gave his executive report.
During the week, he discussed with his counterpart at Sias International University what would be addressed in his summer trip to the university in China. Also this week, he participated in a president’s roundtable to prepare for the upcoming transition of leadership.
Vice President Kirschbaum wrapped up the Provost Search Committee this week now that the new provost will be Dr. Jill Arensdorf.
Both Treasurer Voss and Legislative Affairs Director Mountford assisted in interviews for the SGA executive staff positions for the coming year.
Community Relations Director Dougherty stated in her report that she has been focusing on day to day operations this week. She also reminded everyone that parties can still be registered during the summer.
The only two committees that met this week were the Senate Affairs Committee and the Student Relations and Involvement Committee. Brad DeMers of the OER Taskforce announced that the form for the Professor Award for use of Open Educational Resources is now live.
During Open Forum, the senators voted to move a bill into New Business.
There was also discussion of honoring the women’s basketball seniors. There was concern about this because other teams would not have been honored, but the senators agreed to revisit this next semester.
The senators voted for the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award during this time. At the end of the meeting, it was announced that CRD Dougherty was this year’s winner.
The bill that was moved to New Business was an amendment that would raise the required GPA of Student Senate members to 2.75 and 2.50, but not make this amendment go into effect until the following Spring.
This bill was made emergency business in order for the senators to take an immediate vote and was passed. The rationale behind this change was because it was not proposed at the time of the SGA elections. It would have then been unfair to impose upon the new senators who were unaware of it during the election.
In Old Business, a senator made a motion to reconsider a bill that was passed the week prior. This bill would provide $1,000 to a Study Abroad to Greece and Italy this coming summer. Much of the discussion of this bill revolved around whether it qualified as personal gain and if the students attending the trip were a student organization.
After a vote and a division of the house, the bill failed.
The senators then passed a resolution for Student Leader of the Month, followed by two bills.
The first bill was for a fee reduction. The second was the updated funding guide.
Before the funding guide was passed, it was amended to clarify the timeline mentioned in the guide. According to the amendment, receipts must be turned in within two weeks following each event.
In the weekly announcements, Senator Musgrove announced that the form for interest in becoming a committee chair was open.
This was followed by the oath of office and then the close of the Student Senate meeting.