BY RAEGAN NEUFELD
SGA voted to adopt a a resolution which calls for a polling place on campus at Thursday’s meeting. The vote came from the idea that the Fort Hays Student Government Association has the purpose of “serving, protecting, and promoting the interests and rights of the students of this institution.”
With the resolution, SGA recognizes the importance of making voting accessible to students. According to Sen. and Coordinator of the FHSU American Democracy Project Grace McCord, the amount of FHSU students voting in elections is below the national average.
“When I looked at reports from other schools like Wichita State and Kansas State, they were all performing above the mark,” she told Tiger Media Network. “So when we looked at kind of why that was, we realized that each of those universities have a polling place on campus and Fort Hays doesn’t.”
As determined by the Hays wards and precincts, the current polling place for students living on and nearby campus is located on Main Street. McCord said this polling place only draws approximately 330 voters as opposed to other places in the city, some of which draw near 1000.
“So we’re thinking if we can pull it on to campus we can increase student engagement with that polling place, making it a better turnout for the community and also a really great access point for students to get involved with democracy,” McCord said.
During the meeting, it was mentioned the polling place would serve students who are registered to vote in Ellis County and live between Main Street and the bypass, and 1st and 13th Street. In the resolution, SRIC also recommends that SGA senators and executive staff members act as poll workers, should the polling place be moved on campus.
Legislative Affairs Director Ella Burrows talked about another voting resolution, one that recommends students be given an excused absence if they have to leave Ellis County to vote on election days. This resolution was adopted by SGA at the end of last semester, but Burrows has recently discussed the matter with members of the Faculty Senate.
“They’re pretty positive about that going through the Faculty Senate, but they’d like to see more data for it,” Burrows said. “So I’ll be working on a student survey about voting, to give out to all of our on-campus students, hopefully here pretty soon. Then eventually, I’ll present the findings and the resolution to the Faculty Senate, which I’m hoping to do before the end of this year.”
Burrows also reported that Higher Education Day on Wednesday was a success, where 16 students traveled to Topeka and met with 20 legislators, advocating for various higher education needs.
Several new resolutions dealing with the Legislative and Political Action Committee’s fee review work were read at the meeting. Leading up to this week, the committee has met with a handful of campus organizations that receive money from student fees.
If all of the resolutions are adopted following next week’s meeting, Athletic Bands and Tiger Media Network would receive a slight increase in the money they get from student fees. Student Government Association, Civic Engagement, the Educational Opportunity Fund and Student Engagement would all receive a slight decrease, while Campus Intramurals, Tiger Debs, the Wellness Center and the Memorial Union would stay the same.
The next SGA meeting is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on February 23 in the Black and Gold Room.