Senators will be encouraging student voters by offering a shuttle from the K-State Student Union to five different polling places throughout the Manhattan area. The free-to-students shuttle service will be provided Nov. 3 and 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We specifically selected these five polling places that were most likely to benefit and serve students,” Senator Asher Gilliland, junior in finance, said. “We’re going to have a booth at the K-State Student Union with a map of where the voting places are. We’ll have two volunteers to help people figure out which one they need to go to and a third volunteer to walk voters from the booth to the shuttle.”
K-State Athletic Director John Currie addressed senators regarding the athletic department’s recent decision to disband the equestrian team in favor of a women’s soccer team. Currie said the NCAA made the decision following equestrian’s inability to gain popularity at 40 schools, the amount necessary to become a full-time NCAA sport. Currie said only 14 schools, including K-State, are currently competing at the highest level in equestrian.
“Unfortunately by 2012, equestrian just hadn’t grown nationally,” Currie said. “It had only grown to about 23 programs sponsoring the sport.”
Currie said equestrian would not be recruiting new members to the team for the next year and a half that it is still active. The department is looking into options for the future of women’s soccer but has not made any plans thus far.
Student body President Reagan Kays, senior in agribusiness, addressed the senate about the Open Textbook Initiative that encourages professors with freshmen and sophomore level courses to offer the necessary material for the course online or at a reduced rate. Professors will be allotted a grant or some type of funding reimbursement to help encourage the program. The initiative aims to help make the first two years of college more affordable for students.
Commendations were given to K-State Libraries Ambassadors for the work they have done throughout the first year of the program. The ambassadors program was established in the fall of 2013 to help represent K-State Libraries at various events throughout the year.
Senators voted to allocate $400 to the International Buddies program for its American Halloween Experience event, which will take place at the International Student Center on the evening of Oct. 31. The event will serve as an opportunity for international student to learn about and experience Halloween.
Funding was also approved for Blue Key Senior Honorary to travel to its national conference in Athens, Georgia, Jan. 15-18.
