SGA learns about new scholarship plan

STORY BY CORIE LYNN

The Student Government Association held its weekly meeting on Thursday, September 26.

After the call to order, Dr. Dennis King of Student Affairs spoke to the Senate on changes to how Fort Hays State will give scholarships as a part of the Strategic Growth Plan.

While the proposal will not be finalized until September 30, the university is hoping to implement the proposal this fall. Rather than award scholarships to students to students with an ACT score of 21 or higher, the new plan will lower this required score and take high school GPAs into account.

According to King, this was done because GPAs are better indicators of success in college compared to ACT scores and in order to give students a better scholarship offer upfront.

Following the speaker, the executive staff gave their reports.

President DeMers met with other FHSU presidents during the Presidents’ Round Table, during which they discussed the Big Event and the proposed Dead Week policy.

He also met with the President’s Cabinet to discuss this year’s enrollment numbers. Later, he met with Facility Planning to discuss the progress of renovations to campus. This includes renovations to Rarick Hall beginning June of 2020.

DeMers took this time to update the Senate on the progression of the Dead Week Policy. According to him, he will meet members of the Faculty Senate’s Student Affairs Committee to discuss the policy and what changes it needed.

He concluded his report by giving a short discussion of the tour of the McMindes kitchen he attended with Legislative Affairs Director Wisely.

Vice President Musgrove’s report was devoted to an update on the General Education Committee’s progress on updating the university’s required core courses.

He stated that he would like to see more student input on the plans that exist at present, including having the proposal presented to the SGA.

During his report, Treasurer Applegate discussed working with the Shooting Sports Club to create a new yearly budget. This budget was read as a bill later in the meeting.

LAD Wisely spent this week working on National Voter Registration Day. The SGA spent Monday and Tuesday tabling across campus to register students to vote.

With applications open for seats in the SGA, Wisely also spent her week collecting information from candidates.

With the close of executive reports, the committee chairs discussed their own reports.

The Appropriations Committee announced that it has two bills up for first reading. The Senate Affairs Committee also has a bill up for first reading in addition to three interviews with SGA candidates.

The Legislative & Political Action Committee asked that the senators consider how to best meet the needs of students being as there were no appointments made for the free legal counseling service.

Following the reports, the Senate swore in the newly-elected Freshman and KAMS senators.

During the Open Forum, Senator Hommon brought up the path that has formed in the grass between Stroup Hall and President Mason’s house.

President DeMers addressed this concern by stating that the funding plan has no money allocated for building a sidewalk in this place, though this concern had been brought up before.

The SGA then held the first reading of five bills and one resolution. These bills included the installation of a new senator, funding requests, and the Student Leader of the Month.

Announcements followed the reading of the bills, during which the senators were reminded of FHSU’s production of The Drowsy Chaperone which is running October 1 and 3-6.

The SGA then concluded and will reconvene October 3.

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