BY RAEGAN NEUFELD
The Student Government Association continued to look ahead, voting on resolutions, discussing spring events and filling senate seats in their last meeting of the semester.
A new resolution was voted on and adopted at last night’s meeting. The resolution, which was introduced last week, recommends the Fort Hays Academic Policies and Procedures for Class Attendance be changed to include voting as an excused absence. According to the resolution, many FHSU students are not registered to vote in Ellis County and must travel on election day or request an absentee ballot.
“Any student who is absent as a result of fulfilling their civic duty to vote in all elections should not be penalized for the absence,” the resolution states.
No discussion on the resolution was needed and the senators voted unanimously to adopt it.
A recent topic of discussion for the SGA has been an $80,000 federal grant given to the university to use for food and hygiene products. One way it has been utilized so far is by keeping the Tiger Food Exchange stocked. President Ryan Stanley, who sits on a committee for the grant, reported that some of the money will be used to pass out breakfast during finals week.
“Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week, we’ll have people out in front of the Union and Sheridan Hall from 8:00 to 10:30 a.m. handing out food for students,” he said.
According to Stanley, he is also hoping to provide feminine products in bathrooms around campus with some of the grant money.
“At least in the Memorial Union, the locker rooms in Cunningham and in the residential halls,” he said. “I’ll keep pushing for that. It’s something I think would be a great service to students.”
During the open forum, Community Relations Director Emma Day asked for input about potential partnerships between SGA and other organizations for the annual Big Event.
“In some of my meetings this week, I had a lot of people approach me and ask to collaborate and partner on the Big Event,” she said.
Day has already talked about partnering with one of the leadership classes at previous meetings, and says that will still happen. The idea of multiple partnerships was discussed at length, with senators pointing out these partnerships could be a way to advertise SGA more. However, one of the questions about the partneships was how the planning responsibilities would be delegated.
“We want to leave room for the leadership class to have an ability to make their own decisions, but I would make sure there are clear guidelines so that the things that need to happen still happen,” Day said.
To end the meeting, Aspen Patrick and Audrey Rymer were ratified as two new senators, filling vacant seats in the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences and the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
The first SGA meeting of the spring semester is tentatively scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on January 26 in the Black and Gold Room.