K-Staters,
A new SGA term starts this Thursday evening! As Jake and I come to the end of our term in office, I’d like to offer one final weekly update today, looking back at the past year and reporting on some of the progress we’ve been able to achieve along with the whole of Student Senate.
We’ll start with our platform goals from our campaign over a year ago: first, we wanted to “empower relationships” by enabling more students to have professional mentorship opportunities. We’re thrilled to say that programs will begin soon in the Colleges of Human Ecology and Arts & Sciences, thanks to great leadership from Deans Buckwalter and Dorhout, in cooperation with SGA.
Secondly, we wanted to “enhance mobility” on campus, so we installed mobile charging stations through work with Union Director Bill Smriga and iTac Director Rebecca Gould, added a “wifi error report link” to KSOL, and made major progress on an improved K-State app, which will continue after we’re gone.
Thirdly, we’ve “enriched experience” by working with the Provost’s Office to form a TEVAL Revisions Task Force, which has begun evaluating ways in which our process can be improved.
But our platform goals have been just the start; we’ve been able to improve things at K-State through a number of facilities-related projects as well. We’ve worked to enable free student parking (for up to 2.5 hours) south of the Rec Complex with the simple swipe of a Student ID. We’ve recommended improvements to the surrounding community through City University Fund, like paving the parking lot in City Park and making Denison Avenue west of campus safer. Of course, we’ve continued to work hard on the program design phase of the Student Union renovation, and are excited to report a number of functional and architectural improvements in the works.
A number of other projects have been the focus of our attention this year, too. Earlier this semester, we partnered with SafeTrek, a mobile safety app, to allow K-State students, faculty, and staff to download the app for free. We’ve continued to advocate for a shift in campus smoking policy, and passed a resolution through Student Senate reflecting that sentiment; Faculty and Classified Senates are in the process of considering such a resolution as well. Finally, our Tuition Strategies Committee just wrapped up its work, and will soon be recommending to President Schulz a tuition and fee level for next academic year that we feel balances the competing priorities of affordability and university quality; we’ll keep our fingers crossed that our advocacy work early this semester to the Kansas Legislature will pay off with no further cuts to the K-State budget!
Tomorrow’s K-State Today will feature an even more comprehensive list of SGA’s work over the past year — check it out. I hope we’ve served you well over the past year. It has been a pleasure, and an experience we won’t ever forget — thanks for following along and for the opportunity to serve over the past 12 months!
Eli Schooley
Student Body President
elis@ksu.edu