Ball State’s Student Government Association (SGA) held its weekly meeting Feb. 26 in the university’s L.A. Pittenger Student Center Cardinal Hall A, beginning with Organizational Caucus Chair Philena Evett. Evett requested $99.71 for a mental health awareness tabling event that will be held at the Scramble Light April 11 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
$15.79 went to 100 clear gift bags, $26.95 for a bulk candy box, $29.99 for mental health bracelets, $411.98 for 200 mental health stickers and $15.00 for miscellaneous items.
After the request was approved 33-0 with one abstention, SGA went into its executive reports where President Noah Poole updated the senate on topics, such as transportation.
“I'm happy to report that [transportation services] are indeed working on a replacement [for TransLoc], and they're looking to implement these changes and hopefully update students and allow them to track buses going into the next school year.”
He also was recently able to meet with the University Senate and share SGA’s accomplishments with them.
Vice President Brenna Large informed the senate about the upcoming SGA election dates for the chief administrator, treasurer and president pro tempore positions.
Nominations for chief administrator and treasurer for next school year will take place March 12, and March 19, as well as for the president pro tempore nominations. March 26 will be the election for the president pro tempore position.
After executive reports, Chair Natalie Walker from the Community and Environmental Affairs Committee proposed a $5 sustainability fee for student’s tuition each semester. Any students who are taking one in-person class would have it put on their bill.
During the Q&A session regarding this proposal, Sen. Caroline Emerick asked how many students participated in the survey. Walker answered around 200 students.
According to SGA’s agenda, the whereas of this bill came from a Ball State sustainability survey, in which “Chief Sustainability Officer Margaret Lo and research assistants found that between 75 percent to 87 percent of students supported a student sustainability fee if the process is transparent and inclusive and the benefits to students are clearly communicated.”
Evett asked if students could opt out of this fee, and in response, Walker said they could not.
“We decided to not leave that as an option, because that would make it a much more arduous process for the billing of it,” Walker said
Sen. Jack Correa questioned why the vote would be every five years and not every year. Walker answered that question by explaining how the billing is done.
“The Board of Trustees makes adjustments to billing on tuition every two years, so voting on it each year wouldn't change in any way,” she said.
As the Q&A session ended, Large explained how senators should come to the next meeting with points of discussion to be ready to vote on this.
The next senate meeting will be March 12 at 3:15 p.m. in the L.A Pittenger Student Center.
If students want to share what they think about the sustainability fee, they have the chance to do so by attending the meeting.
Contact Shelby Anderson via email at sanderson9@bsu.edu.
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