{"id":83242,"date":"2024-11-08T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T15:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=83242"},"modified":"2024-11-08T09:00:38","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T15:00:38","slug":"sga-hosts-annual-fall-open-forum-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=83242","title":{"rendered":"SGA hosts annual fall Open Forum for students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By RAEGAN NEUFELD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Student Government Association hosted its fall Open Forum on Thursday, facilitating conversations between students and university officials representing different student services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representatives from Health and Wellness, the University Police Department, the Compliance Office, Student Engagement, Residential Life and the Union Catering Company answered questions from students at the event and questions that had been submitted beforehand. They covered a variety of topics, including ongoing initiatives in each office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compliance Officer Laurie Larrick said her office has had recent reports of students feeling their course content is discriminatory and non-inclusive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a lot of conversations with students directed around what their course content is, what it should be, what should be included in that and that the content you learn at a college level is slightly different and elevated than a high school level,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larrick also said she is anticipating changes to the federal regulations that guide the Compliance Office following the election. Title IX specifically is affected by the differences in Democratic and Republican party lines, so Larrick said they will monitor those changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Residential Life Director RJ Schnack, several of the residential buildings will undergo improvements in the near future. The carpet in the McMindes Cafe will be replaced with tile over winter break, and the carpet in Agnew and Heather Halls will be replaced over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been since those buildings were built that they\u2019ve had new carpets,\u201d Schnack said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schnack also spoke about two residential concerns from last year: mold in the dorm buildings and the meal plan requirement for sophomores living on campus. According to Schnack, the custodial and maintenance staff worked over the summer to reclean the vents in McMindes Hall and the air conditioning units in Victor E. Village. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe plan on continuing doing that kind of stuff and being more proactive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meal plan requirement for sophomores living on campus was a concern discussed at several SGA meetings last year<\/a>. Schnack pointed out that Fort Hays is one of just two Kansas Board of Regents universities that don\u2019t require a meal plan for upperclassmen living on campus. Additionally, the requirement helps keep costs for meal plans lower, and there are not enough kitchens in the residence halls for everyone to make their own food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t physically have that many kitchens to make it accessible for students to cook for themselves on a day-to-day basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panelists also touched on the challenges they face when it comes to connecting with students. For Student Engagement Director Jaden Rahe, the challenge is engaging with students who have busy schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou all, as students, are working, involved in student organizations or have other priorities, but we want to make Fort Hays a place where you build a sense of belonging and find your people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While UPD is active at public events such as the Back to School Picnic, Chief of Police Terry Pierce said interactions with students are still a work in progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe still have a little bit to overcome in the way of people always thinking \u2018oh I\u2019m in trouble\u2019 whenever we come speak to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both UCC owner Phil Kuhn and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs David Bollig said that connecting with students is a challenge in itself. Both talked about the value of student opinions and feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDifferent students are out there, different cultures are out there and different cuisines are out there,\u201d Kuhn said. \u201cIf you let us know and you give us constructive criticism, we\u2019re able to put different things into effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bollig, who oversees Health and Wellness, uses his Freshman Seminar class as a way to overcome the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to get in front of a group of students and talk to them about how things are going in the res halls, with dining and what they would like to see differently at Fort Hays, and then taking that back and being able to apply it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the SGA meeting after the Open Forum, Legislative Affairs Director Grace McCord reminded senators to continue asking constituents for feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOpen Forum only happens once a semester,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile it\u2019s a really great opportunity to get questions answered, the doors to the SGA office are open all the time, so please come see us and ask us any questions you or your constituents have and we\u2019ll get those to who they need to go to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One student concern was brought up during the meeting. Sen. Audrey Rymer said many constituents have talked to her about the inconvenience of Saturday homework deadlines, especially in online classes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are the first generation that homework has always followed us home for the weekends, especially with 11:59 due dates,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s anything we could bring up to Faculty Senate or address it in the handbook for students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Ella Burrows said she would relay the concern to the Faculty Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next SGA meeting will be at 7 p.m. on November 7 in the Black and Gold Room. Location is subject to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By RAEGAN NEUFELD Tiger Media Network The Student Government Association hosted its fall Open Forum on Thursday, facilitating conversations between students and university officials representing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":77122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,3398,11,3389],"tags":[15992,3882,14226,156],"class_list":["post-83242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-news","category-student-government-news","tag-fall-open-forum","tag-fhsu-sga","tag-raegan-neufeld","tag-student-government-association"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Student-Government-Association-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1435&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83244,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83242\/revisions\/83244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}