By ALICIA FEYERHERM
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University’s Online Student Government Association (OSGA) met on Saturday and swore in two new senators: Karley Downham and Amber Shapland.
Downham is pursuing a master’s in Instructional Design.
“I just want to join OSGA because it gives me an opportunity to be a part of improving the online student community,” Downham said.
Shapland is pursuing a master’s in English. As a 7-12 grade teacher, Shapland routinely promotes Fort Hays to her students.
“Because I’ve had so much success in it, I thought joining an organization like this would help me promote it more,” Shapland said.
During the meeting, the group also discussed the recently-created online student newsletter.
“It (the newsletter) was so collaborative,” OSGA President Eileen Moore said. “We had multiple senators providing content for it which is the purpose ‘by students for students’.”
Sent in an email to all online students on Oct. 1, the newsletter has garnered over 950 views and OSGA was contacted by six students interested in joining. OSGA plans on publishing the next edition in January.
Ari Rad, a senator from Finland, shared an Online Student Resources document he created.
“It takes a lot of time to go and search for online resources,” Rad said. “I think this online resources project helps online students to spend less time looking for resources which are available for them.”
The document includes information about:
- The Tebo Library
- The Writing Center
- Tiger Tech
- Career Services
- Financial Assistance
- Counseling services
The document will be updated with more resources and information.
“Ari’s intent on this is for this to be a living document that’s going to change as the university brings more things on,” Moore said.
Senators had several ideas for future OSGA events including some specifically geared towards international online students. Moore encouraged committees to meet before the next OSGA meeting and report on any updates.
The next OSGA meeting will be at 8:00 p.m. CST on Tuesday, November 18. All students are welcome to attend. For the meeting link, email osga@fhsu.edu