Senators spent their Thursday SGA meeting discussing how to make K-State safer, as well as how to better allocate privilege fee dollars and funding organizations.
As part of the “It’s On Us” campaign, if students are dismissed for non-academic misconduct, such as stalking, harassing or assaulting a fellow student, K-State notes that on the student’s transcript so that another university would be aware of the issue. The senators unanimously approved a resolution to encourage the Kansas Board of Regents to adopt the policy, something other universities in the state are currently looking to do as well.
According to Kays, adoption of this policy at all Kansas Board of Regents schools would help universities know exactly what problems they could potentially be receiving with an incoming student and synchronize the communication between all of the universities.
“There was an issue where a student who was dismissed from K-State for non-academic misconduct transferred to KU,” Student Body President Reagan Kays, senior in agribusiness, said. “KU came and asked us why we hadn’t told them about the issue and we asked why they hadn’t read the transcript.”
Then, the allocations from the Student-Centered Tuition Enhancement committee were approved. The committee had a total budget of $750,000 and allocated $562,180 to the 12 proposals that were submitted.
“It’s typical to look at proposals that are currently essential to functioning here at K-State,” Student Body Vice President Cody Kennedy, senior in education and chairman of the committee, said. “We are rolling those off on to central administration budget.”
Programs funded by SCTE are usually new programs that are being tested by the university and are given SCTE funding for a period of time before being moved to the central administration budget if they are successful. This is the first year that SCTE has not used its entire budget, due to a lack of applications.
Amendments were made to the SGA statutes concerning the five arts funding regulations. It now allows funding to cover payroll and benefits. Statutes were also amended for the recreational complex to prevent privilege fee dollars from being used to build or renovate the recreation complex.
Amendments were made to the statutes considering the student activity fee funding to prevent a prior loophole which allowed organizations that required students be enrolled in a specific course to request funding. This was problematic for senators in the case of funding for Studios 805 and 101 that requested funding earlier this year and were both denied.
It was announced that the backside of 17th street will be closed from Gen. Richard B. Myers Hall to the Engineering Complex after spring break due to construction.
Funding was approved for the Engineering Student Council to attend the National Association of Engineering Student Councils National Conference. The Human Ecology College Council also received funding for its first professional development day.
Phi Beta Sigma was given funding to host its annual Wildcat Step Show on April 18. Funding was also given to the Institute of Industrial Engineers to attend the Regional Industrial Engineering Conference from Thursday to Sunday. Pussycat Printmaking Society was also given funding to send eight members to the Southern Graphics Council Printmaking Conference, March 18-21.
