BY CORIE LYNN
During the Student Government Association’s weekly meeting on Thursday, the student senators passed a resolution supporting creation of a student seat on the Kansas Board of Regents.
This resolution, which has been presented to the student governments across the KBOR institutions, does not actually establish the seat.
“It’s just a supporting statement saying, ‘We support this if it should pass,’” Vice President Bryson Homman said.
In addition to the resolution, the student senators also passed two bills funding an equipment request and a speaker for the student group Techa.
Prior to passing these bills, the student senators also read seven new bills.
The meeting began with reports from both the executive staff and the committees.
President Haley Reiter spent her week in meetings, such as the Virtual Student Senate, the Educational Opportunity Fund and the University Budget Committee.
Homman, during his report, said that he and Legislative Affairs Director Crystal Rojas met with the Student Emergency Assistance fund, but they were unable to award funding this week.
Rojas also organized free legal counseling, conducted fee reviews and met with University Affairs about the KBOR student seat resolution.
Of the committees that reported, the Appropriations Committee stated that it had three bills up for first and second readings. The Legislative and Political Action Committee discussed their meeting with Michelle and Demetrius Chance, during which the committee learned more about how to better represent students.
Additional reports came from the Senate Affairs, Allocations and General Education committees.
Following these reports, the meeting moved into its open forum. During this time, Senator Skyler Jones expressed concerns about the large amounts of money given to student organizations through allocations when student aids, such as Insulin Aid and the Student Emergency Assistance Fund, lack funding.
“We’re kind of cutting rent, food, that sort of thing, short,” he said.
Reiter then took the time to explain where allocations funding comes from.
“So allocations is funded through a student fee, and there are stipulations for what we can use it for,” she said.
Because these funds come through the student activity fee, the funds must go to student activities.
Treasurer David Schulte confirmed this, adding that there is the possibility of adding a new fee for the assistance Jones mentioned, but he does not know what the process of creating a fee is like.
As the meeting came to a close, the student senators moved into announcements.
Rojas informed the senators that they and other students can submit photos of the women who inspired them to Student Engagement along with a short explanation of how they are inspirational.
Following this announcement, the meeting concluded.