The Student Government Association held its meeting on Nov. 17 and swore in four new senators.

The senators, Drew Apple, criminal justice and political science sophomore, Shanda Webb, special education freshman, Micaela Dale, business management and marketing junior, and Ashley Kern, secondary education freshman, were told to make two goals they wanted to accomplish as senators.

One goal Apple came up with was having students who have a concealed carry license be able to carry their weapons on campus.
Kern said she wants more activities on campus.

“I live on campus,” Kern said. “There is hardly anything going on during the weekends, and I’d like to change that.”

Dale said her first goal is to help raise the IUS retention rate.

“I want to help get students to go to sporting events and have pride to be a student here,” Dale said. “Students should be excited about coming here.”

Webb said she would like to better organize the various parking lots.

“I’d like to have names for the rows in each parking lot,” Webb said. “I know sometimes after my class I can’t remember where I parked at.”

Jennifer Broadus, general studies junior and SGA treasurer, said she was proud of the senators.

“We have been doing a lot of work,” Broadus said. “We went over how to write a bill, the by-laws, our constitution and briefly touched on how to write a resolution since they are harder to do than bills.”

Stephon Moore, journalism freshman and SGA press secretary, wrote a resolution for the upcoming changes that the SGA is going to have in the election process.

“The bill will be changed a lot before it actually goes into effect,” Moore said. “We’re going to cut it up during the reformation committee meeting on [Nov. 22], but, basically, it says the deans of each school will nominate five students to be put onto a ballot for the SGA.”

Moore said, after the students are nominated, each one will be competing for one of two spots per school.

“There are two seats per school and two seats for undecided students, as well,” Moore said. “There will also be eight at-large spots and four seats reserved for freshmen.”

Moore said, instead of just being one election, there will be two — one in May, as usual, and another in January.

Moore also wrote up an allocation bill for a Meet and Eat event on Dec. 1.

“The total cost of everything is $377.35,” Moore said. “That will cover the food for it.”

Stephen Prather, radiography junior and SGA pro-tempore, said he has some concerns about moving the date.

“I think having it at the beginning of the spring semester would be better because it would appeal to the new students that might be here,” Prather said.

Moore said he wanted to move the date closer so students could know what the SGA has been doing this semester.

“There will be pizza, and the students will be relaxed, so this would be a good way to get them in gear,” Moore said.

Matt Owen, political science junior and SGA senate chair, said he agreed with Prather about the date.

“It would be better to hold off until the spring semester so we don’t have to put this into emergency status and pass it today,” Owen said.

However, Josh Kornberg, communications junior and SGA president, said he thought it was a good idea to have it now.

“This will help out in public relations, and, if the only concern is finals and students not showing up, then we should do it,” Kornberg said.

Broadus said, if there is a push to do more of them in the spring, then they have the funds to do so.

“We still have 63.9 percent of our budget left,” Broadus said.

The bill went into emergency status and passed.

“I would like to say that the last part of the bill does say that certain members are required to give a speech,” Moore said.

Moore said Kevin Evans, secondary education junior and SGA vice president, Kornberg, Owen and another senator to-be-decided are all required to give a speech.

“If [one of the speakers] doesn’t show up for this, then it looks bad on us,” Moore said. “If you need me to, I will write your speech.”

Kornberg said the Board of Trustees will be on campus Dec. 8 and 9.

“All eight of the vice chancellors will be there to talk about what is happening here,” Kornberg said.

Owen said he wants the SGA to look better than their best on the first week of December.

“The trustees will be walking around touring the campus, and, since the office is in the main hallway of University Center, we not only need to look professional, we need to act it, as well,” Owen said.

Dulguun Otgonsuren, undecided sophomore and SGA secretary, said he is having trouble getting the bulletin board printed.

“I tried to get an estimate from Kinko’s on how much it would cost to print,” Otgonsuren said. “They said they couldn’t give me one because it is too small, so I will have to do some work on it. I also need the associate justices’ photos to put on there, as well.”

By BRYAN JONES

Staff

jonesbry@umail.iu.edu