Student Governing Association began its meeting on Nov. 20 with a presentation from Lindsey Elliott, news production specialist for the Division of Communications and Marketing, and Tucker Styrkowicz, junior in industrial engineering, about the new LiveSafe app being offered to K-State students for free.
Students can download the K-State version of the app, which can connect them to the K-State and Riley County Police departments, allow them to report crimes and have a friend or family member virtually “walk” with them via the app.
“You can just send in a tip from your phone or your iPad,” Elliott said. “And you’re more likely to actually send it in because it’s so easy.”
The LiveSafe app will cost K-State about $5,000 each year and the contract runs for the next five years.
President Reagan Kays, senior in agribusiness, updated senators on the Kansas Board of Regents decision in regards to the referendum passed unanimously by the student senate last week, which required students’ consent before upping tuition and fees to add new buildings on a campus. The Board of Regents sided with the students and barred universities from bypassing the students for more money.
“They decided by a unanimous vote to not take (the original proposal) as a non-budgetary legislative item to the Capital,” Kays said.
Over the past weekend, some members of the executive branch traveled to Ames, Iowa for the Big 12 student government conference. Vice President Cody Kennedy, senior in education, spoke about some differences between K-State SGA and other universities’ student governments and the amount of difference SGA is really able to make, by comparison.
“I took away from that conference the impact we here at K-State get the opportunity to truly make,” Kennedy said. “Not every student government has that in the Big 12. I felt like we were one of the best, if not the best, student government in the Big 12.”
Changes were made to the tuition strategies committee guidelines. Andrew Hurtig, junior in accounting, presented the updates, which included changing the language to include fees and state that a review of fees shall be presented to the university president and provost on a three-year cycle.
The recommendations of club funding from the Educational Opportunity Fund Committee were approved by senators, allocating $370,000 to various departments for scholarships, grants and payment for research assistants.
Funding was approved for the Associated General Contractors and Kansas State University Habitat for Humanity to travel to Mobile, Alabama to build a house. Kansas State University Theatre Organization also received funding to send 10 members to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Bloomington, Minnesota, to compete and network with professionals in the field.
Funding was also approved for the Wildlife Society to attend the Kansas Natural Resource Conference in Wichita. The Hispanic American Leadership Organization also received funding to send 10 students to the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago, Illinois.
Intern Andrew McKittrick, sophomore in computer engineering, spoke on an infographic he developed showcasing SGA funding and where dollars come from and go.
