The Student Senate meeting began Monday at 6:01 p.m. in the Woodland Theater in Davies Student Center. The meeting was in a new location, as the Dakota Ballroom is in the process of being set up for the upcoming Viennese Ball.
Senate President Kaitlyn Hevrin began the meeting with a few updates before moving on to reports.
Communications Commission Director Audrey Curtler reminded the group that students will have the chance to meet and talk with Interim Chancellor Michael Carney about any campus-related issues. A reception will be held Thursday at 4 p.m. in Centennial Hall room 1204 for students to have conversations with Carney and his staff.
Equity in Student Matters Senate Director Amber Keller gave a few updates and said there is a walk-through of the Phillips Hall greenhouse planned for Wednesday, April 8 at 11 a.m.
Intergovernmental Affairs Commission Director Ally Etzler said her commission is planning a spring block party, and reminded senate that Tuesday, April 7 is election day.
“Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., giving all of you plenty of time to go vote,” Etzler said. “I’ve been told I can’t make any threats, but just know that if I find out any of you did not vote, I hope your pillow is warm on both sides.”
Following updates from the rest of the senate directors and special updates from housing and mascot coordinators, senate moved on to old business and voted on three bills.
Student Organization Commission (SOC) Director Tia Beirne reintroduced Bill 69-B-12, which called for a student organization restructuring plan.
“The bill that I am introducing today has been a long time coming,” Beirne said. “We did a deep dive on all of our student organizations to really see what distinguishes them from one another. After careful consideration, we settled on creating two different tiers or categorizations to separate these groups.”
The two categories, Beirne said, are “affiliated programs” and “general student organizations.” She said general student organizations are groups who receive funding from the student organization fund.
For groups to qualify as affiliated programs, Beirne said they must meet at least one of the following requirements: they must receive Organized Activity Funding, be department-sponsored, or be credit-producing.
“The benefits for Affiliated Programs do not differ too much from general student organizations, but they get the option to have a portal on BlugoldConnect+ and their re-registration requirements may look a bit different depending on if they have a portal or not,” Beirne said.
The organizations that would be changed to affiliated programs, Beirne said, include Blugold Marching Band, Women’s Concert Chorale, Singing Statesmen, campus radio, Forensics, Campus Ambassadors, Peer Diversity Educators, NOTA, The Spectator, Beta Alpha Psi, Alpha Kappa Delta and TV10.
“By implementing this change, we hope this will provide more clarity for both students in these groups but also for those that work with these groups internally,” Beirne said.
Bill 69-B-12 passed 25-0-2.
Next, SOC intern Max Moffit reintroduced Bill 69-B-13 for the creation of a campus publications board. Moffit said as SOC was writing 69-B-12, they learned from other university officials that many schools have an on-campus publications or media board.
“The idea of this is to promote clear and cohesive information campus-wide,” Moffit said. “When these student groups work together, not only do they benefit from working with one another and highlighting different strengths from different forms of media, but they also get additional support.”
According to Moffit, the groups that would be affiliated with this board include campus radio, TV10, The Spectator and NOTA.
“Our goal is to facilitate this group to get started and lay the groundwork and turn it over to the designated advisor,” he said.
Beirne said the current bill, as it stands, will serve as an outline, and that further conversations within the individual groups about policies and advising can occur down the line.
The bill passed 25-0-2.
Hevrin reintroduced bill 69-B-14 to adopt several updated chapters of senate bylaws. The bill passed 26-0-2.
Finally, moving on to new business, Finance Commission Director Isabelle Shepard introduced bill 69-B-15 for the revised allocation of Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) funds.
Shepard said because the GSRC had, due to unforeseen staffing changes, decided to put on House of Blugold in place of the annual Fire Ball, the money that had been allocated for the Fire Ball was not used as planned.
“This shift resulted in lower overall costs, and it has been decided that the remaining funds allocated for the Fire Ball event will be returned to the Finance Commission Clearing Account in the interest of fiscal responsibility,” Shepard said.
She said the Fire Ball is set to be back on as usual in 2027. The bill will be introduced at next Monday’s meeting.
After several brief updates, the senate meeting adjourned at 6:53 p.m.
Wojahn can be reached at [email protected].
