BY CORIE LYNN
Meeting for the final time of the fall semester, the FHSU Student Government Association gave committee updates and passed funding bills.
The two bills the organization passed were proposed for the first time that evening but moved to emergency business as they were written under unusual circumstances.
“Four or five years ago,” Treasurer David Schulte said, “SGA passed legislation that said if you had any or if any organization had any money left in their Student Government account that they got allocated, that money would just get pulled back into the general allocations pool to be given out again the next year.”
Haley Moon of Graduate Association of Students in Psychology uncovered an unused sum $6,000 given to the organization prior to the allocation legislation.
The first bill sent to emergency business was to allow GASP to purchase a DVD package on trauma-informed intervention training while the second bill created a new line item in which the organization could utilize the $6,000.
The bill was passed with SGA members agreeing that GASP should be able to utilize this money as it was received prior to the change in allocations legislation.
Apart from these votes, much of the meeting was spent giving reports. During this time, the student senators gave a number of important updates.
The first of which came from Vice President Bryson Homman, who informed the group that the food services in the Memorial Union will have shortened hours during the spring semester to account for a reduction in foot traffic.
Legislative Affairs Director Crystal Rojas reported that she and the other Kansas Board of Regents legislative affairs directors were still in discussion of what this year’s Higher Education Day would look like
Community Relations Director Jayden Siebert confirmed that the Big Event will be held all day on April 24. This year’s service projects will also be adjusted to ensure the safety of volunteers and businesses.
“What we project is that this event will be less like service, but more like college students bringing good vibes to businesses,” Siebert said, “whether that’s raking leaves for older people or going to churches and nursing homes. Obviously not in them but outside of them[.]”
Additional reports came from committees.
The Allocations Committee reminded the group that the preliminary allocations deadline is Monday, and the Legislative and Political Action Committee reported that they discussed goals for the following semester and how fee reviews will take place.
The Learning Assessment Committee discussed ways for instructors to evaluate whether they are meeting their own learning objectives.
The committee representative, Sen. Skylar Jones, also spoke on the importance of course evaluations.
“It’s important for when teachers are up for tenure and they’re evaluating their entire body of work,” he said, “and they can look back at course evaluations and data from students to determine how they are communicating with their students, how they’re getting their message across.”
Additional reports came from the Appropriations, General Education and Learning Environment Committees.
The only topic discussed in the Open Forum was the Traffic Appeals process.
Homman explained that students wishing to contest a traffic ticket received on campus may appeal to the Traffic Appeals Committee, which is made of SGA members and University police staff.
The group then meets twice a semester to hear cases, and go over photos and other information pertaining to the tickets.
During this discussion President Haley Reiter informed the group that those wishing to appeal, which must be done within 14 days of receiving the ticket, should pay the ticket in the event the appeal is not decided in their favor.
Following this discussion and the vote on the GASP bills, the Student Senate moved into announcements.
During this time, the group was once again reminded of the allocations deadline.
Several students senators also encouraged their peers to take care of their mental health during this finals season.
With that, the meeting came to a close. The SGA will reconvene in January at the beginning of the spring semester.