During the last senate meeting, April 15, SGA President Jacob Scott presented a finalized proposal to senators that will reallocate funds from the five areas originally outlined to 10 different areas.

The areas outlined in the passed proposal are Baker Fitness Center ($180,000), Esry Health Center (90,000), Student Life ($45,000), International Student Services ($26,250), the Theater and Music Departments ($7,500 each), Blum Union ($262,500), Campus Parking ($108,750), Disability Services ($7,500) and Career Development ($750,000).

While presenting the proposal to senators Scott said the passage of the reallocation would allow students to see changes and “improve the things we want to see improved on campus.”

“I think this is a great step forward for student government and the student body,” Scott said.

Both senators and students in the gallery questioned the proposal; however, senators chose to vote on the proposal rather than table it.

“If you didn’t pass it tonight there would be no opportunity to pass it this year,” Scott said.

Although senate passed the proposal for the fiscal year of 2014, SGA President-Elect Katy Sisco could choose to again reallocate the 2015 funds.

Sisco, who will be elected this Friday at the SGA banquet, has selected her Directors of Student Relations, Communications and Finances. She has taken it upon herself to bring both new and old faces to those offices in the Student Government.

“I’m really excited about the new directors,” Sisco said, “I’m feeling pretty positive on the selections I’ve made.”

She has selected Mike Hollander as her new director of Finance. Hollander is unknown to SGA and has no prior experience, which is what Sisco was looking for in the position. She said that eight individuals applied for the position, but believes Hollander brought something fresh to the office.

“He has the experience in finance,” Sisco said. “He’s an accounting and finance double major and I felt that is what I needed, and I wanted a fresh face.”

The directors of Student Affairs and Communications will have familiar faces, which Sisco wanted. She chose Monterio Seewood, senator of SGA, as her new director of Student Relations. She said he had a great interview and believed his ties with students would be beneficial for the position.

“I think he’s a great mediator for SGA and other organizations,” Sisco said.

Seewood sees this as a golden opportunity to get students and organizations involved. As the new director of Student Relations he wants to work with Student Affairs to restructure the PLC. He said he’s spoken to Shana Meyers, vice president of Student Affairs, and they are heading into the process of restricting the PLC.

“A lot of the problems we’ve had this year has steamed towards communication,” Seewood said, “I know that’s a big issue on Katie’s list and I want students and organizations to know they can come to me.”

Ashley Stegall, director of Communications, will be returning to her position after having 10 applicants apply for her position. Sisco said Stegall has the overall experience for the office of director of Communications, and she knows the ins and outs of SGA.

“Honestly, Dillon and I didn’t want to train someone new to come into the position,” Sisco said. “Everyone knows that Dillon and I are new to SGA, so bringing someone in who has experience is just better.”

Stegall said she is excited to return to SGA next year. After serving under SGA President Jacob Scott, she said that her experience would be beneficial for Sisco’s agenda for next year.

“I really enjoy doing this position,” Stegall said. “I think the most important thing is listening to the students, and we’ve done a good job doing that this semester and we want to continue that.”

Sisco will be inaugurated on Friday, April 19 at the SGA Awards Banquet.

Michael Hollander, director of Finance

Ashley Stegall, director of Communications

Monterio Seewood, director of Student Relations

President-elect Katy Sisco and Vice President-elect Dillon Williams were elected to SGA. Sisco and Williams received 268 votes, compared to presidential candidate Mary Beth Rosenauer and Derek Thompson, who had 174 votes.

A total of 443 students voted in this year’s SGA election, which showed a decrease compared to last year’s numbers, where 1,065 students voted.

“I feel very honored and excited for this opportunity to be elected the President of SGA,” Sisco said. “I’m excited for next year and ready to get things going.”

Mary Beth Rosenauer, who ran against Sisco for SGA presidency, congratulated Sisco as the next President of SGA and plans to work with her in the future. She said in the debate that Sisco and herself are friends and plan to remain in contact.

“I stay in contact with Katie every day,” Rosenauer said. “We are really good motivators for each other, and I’m very proud and excited for her.”

Since she was elected, Sisco plans on keeping her campaign promise by visiting with organizations on campus throughout the rest of the school year. She wants the students to rest assured that she plans to keep them informed with everything SGA is doing.

“Dillon and I have already started plans for our administration next year,” Sisco said.

This new administration wants students to know they are welcome to come forth with issues on their minds. Sisco said she would try her best to fix any issues that are brought forth to SGA.

Sisco believes her connection with residential life as a Residential Assistant will help the process become smoother when she brings up the issue of bringing back Residence Council to SGA as one of the branches for SGA. She was part of the effort to help RA’s bring back Residence Hall Association. If RHA is able to be reinstated, then Sisco believes RC might be an afterthought.

“It would be beneficial to us to get more students involved on campus,” Sisco said. “We can put in place our representation and students can come and voice their opinions that live on campus.”

Student leaders found the numbers low and the process of voting confusing this time around. Last year, students were able to go to Missouri Western’s homepage and click the “Vote Here” button. This year, students had to click the “Students” tab to vote. SGA Senator MonTerio Seewood said he is happy for Katy Sisco and Dillon Williams. Seewood said Sisco and Williams had no SGA experience, but he believes they are both great leaders and are eager to learn.

“We found that voting this year was quite low, compared to past elections,” Seewood said. “I hope that next year we can find a way to get the students more engaged and interested in SGA and their elected student leaders.”

Jacob Scott, president of SGA, said that he is excited to see the new president and vice president take the oath and start their term. He believes Sisco and Williams will do a great job leading the Senate and are willing to work in the transition with Scott. However, he believes the election wasn’t as competitive as last year.

“The election wasn’t as competitive as the one last year,” Scott said. “I think it was low because of spring break and there wasn’t as competitive like it was between my opponent and I on certain issues.”

The inauguration is set for April 19 at 5:30p.m. in the Fulkerson Center.

A proposal has not been made yet but members of SGA are hoping that administration will make a decision soon.

SGA Senator Travis Hart believes that once they get a sure answer from the administration, the process of proposing extended parking will be official.

“Currently the Student Government Association is waiting on the administration to get back with us to proceed fourth with implementing the solutions to improve parking and accessibility on campus,” Hart said. “The issue is that administration is a little reluctant to get started right away and it’s taking time for them to get back with us.”

Hart noted that parking has been one of the more important issues on campus that students have voiced their opinions about.

“Administration has other things on their agenda and it seems that they put parking, the number one complained issue on campus, basically on the back burner,” Hart said. “In particular, Lonnie Johnson.”

There has not been any accurate estimates but they are patiently waiting to move forward and get something started before April.

“Cale Fessler is the vice president of financial planning,” Hart said. “And I have been working with him to figure out the numbers. I’m waiting to hear back from him about our possibilities.”

SGA hopes to expand parking in different areas, as well as helping with the accessibility around buildings like Potter and Griffon Residential hall.

“We want to put a drop-off zone in Potter because currently there is not one,” Hart said. “We also want to improve residential hall parking by changing the barriers, making it more accessible for students living in the halls.”

Hart and other members of SGA plan to implement a drop-off and pick-up zone for students with disabilities at Potter, Griffon and Scanlon hall, which they state is another top priority when dealing with parking.

Students have been concerned about where they can park and there have also been complaints about the lack of parking spots.

Lot G known as Blum Union parking lot is designated for staff, faculty and non-resident students from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m Monday thru Friday. Parking is prohibited from that parking lot from 2:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.

Blum is a popular place for students and sometimes the parking area is full, leaving students having to park somewhere else that they may not be permitted to park at.

Parking Lots H, E, F, O and Q are restricted for students living on campus with the proper decals on the back of their cars, open also from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

After 4:30 p.m. and on weekends, reserved parking lots B,E,F,H,I,J,K and N are open for general parking to all faculty, staff student and visitor parking.

On weekends, parking in Blum parking lot will be open from Friday at 4:30 pm to Monday at 8am. Overnight parking is prohibited at Blum from 2-4:30 am.

These restrictions have caused complaints from commuter students in general because most would like to park close to whatever building their class is taking place.

The idea of extending parking is not far fetched for current SGA President Jacob Scott. He believes in the idea and hopes that it will be addressed by the end of the semester.

“We have a parking improvements proposal,” Scott said. “We are trying to figure out the details, far as enrollment and also concerning specific laws regarding what parking improvements can be made.”

Where the money will come from to pay for the improvements is uncertain at this point, but Scott is almost sure that students will not be issued any additional fees to help pay for the project.

“As far as a fee is concerned, there really is not any in discussion,” Scott said. “It is a possibility, but we are hoping to do it internally through the money we have with SGA.”

“Travis Hart offering the proposal and I am just supporting him,” Scott said. “Any time we have surveys around campus, parking is one of the more complained about issues. It is clearly an overwhelming concern.”

Katy Sisco introduces herself to the audience at the SGA presidential debates. Dave Hon | Senior Editor

“I just feel like I’m different because I’m actually on this campus 24/7 and I’m with the students 24/7. You know, I just live and breathe Missouri Western,” Sisco said.

Sisco went on to say that despite her inexperience, she will bring a fresh perspective to student government.

“[Mary Beth Rosenauer] has a little bit more knowledge of SGA, which I would say is a disadvantage for me, but again, I’m on the outside looking in yet I’m a fast learner and I really think that I’ve already learned a lot,” Sisco said.

Although Sisco and Williams lack SGA experience, Williams is willing to undertake the responsibility of executive vice president.

“I really don’t want anybody to think that just because I have no experience with SGA doesn’t mean I’m not just as capable as somebody within SGA,” Williams said.

The three main topics the running mates would like to address if elected are maximizing student engagement, informing students of the Student Success Act and where the money is going and having organizations support SGA.

“I just see the decline of students involved and I just want to get them more involved and let them know that SGA is an entity that they can use to their advantage. I just don’t think they know that,” Sisco said.

Being involved with several organizations, such as Phi Delta Theta fraternity, Griffon Edge, the VIP student ambassador program and the Gentlemen of Color Association, student involvement is especially important to Williams.

“I really want to just maximize student engagement and increase involvement with the university,” Williams said. “As far as events and stuff are concerned, I know a lot of students that live off campus have no idea about SGA. They have no idea about WAC, WAC being the biggest organization, as far as events go on campus. I really just want to change that.”

The Student Success Act is another significant component of this year’s SGA election. While it is still unclear if the act will be repealed or remain in place, Sisco and Williams support the act.

“I am for the Student Success Act in the spirit that it, as a whole, helps the student body,” Sisco said. “I mean, a lot of people will talk about the fee that’s with it, the $75, and I’m concerned with that; however, I’m also concerned with other things with it, such as the money that’s rolled over.”

Williams supports keeping the fee, but said, “There is no student voice in regards to that money right now.” He would like to have SGA representation during all meetings dealing with the money that fee collects.

“All in all, I support the Student Success Act. I do believe it was created for the students,” Williams said.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, Sisco said that both she and Rosenauer want to enact positive change within the student government.

“I think its just different because we both are really passionate about, you know, not changing SGA. But every organization has things that just need a little tweaking,” Sisco said. “I think we are both just passionate about that.”

Jacob Scott, current SGA president, asks both candidates a question.

“Derek and I have worked together in the past,” Rosenauer said. “I feel like we both have the ability to take what the students want and do our best to put it into action.”

Student senator Jacob Teasely has thrown his support behind Rosenauer in her bid to become President. He thinks that her leadership and her friendship with Thompson make them a good pair who would work well with SGA.

“Mary Beth has more experience,” Teasely said. “She is good at advocating good ideas and making them clear to the students.”

Communication between student leaders and the students is a top priority for Rosenauer. She said her connection with the administration sets her apart and can be beneficial. Her experience working on issues with University President Robert Vartabedian and Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Judith Grimes is what SGA needs in a President.

“I know how the administration likes to go about doing things and their intentions,” Rosenauer said. “I offer students my service on how to work on the relationship between the student body and the administration.”

The Student Success Act, which was passed by the Student Senate last year, is one issue that Thompson would like to take a deeper look at to see what can be done about it. He believes that better communication between the students and the administration on where the funds are going is an issue that needs to be addressed.

“I remember the student fee going into effect,” Thompson said. “With me not being involved in SGA, I didn’t know what the act did and that’s an issue that we must address.”

Rosenauer who voted for the Student Success Act believes at the time of the vote the administration had good intentions. The information that she received over the fee, with a proposed 10 percent cut from the state, at the time made the act a necessity. She believes that many on SGA now probably would like to back their vote in favor of the fee now.

Thompson said that his experience as a leader in residential life would be beneficial when dealing with students on issues like the student fee or other major issues.

“Students should be allowed to know where their money is going,” Thompson said. “I think SGA would be a good place to continue my service to the students and to hear their voices.”

If elected, Rosenauer would like to continue SGA President Jacob Scott’s mission of finding out where exactly the funds are going. Under her presidency, she would like the administration to come forth and tell SGA why funding is still needed for the act. If no evidence can point to a direction where funding is needed, then she would consider repealing the act entirely.

“We need to find out if the fee is even needed anymore,” Rosenauer said. “If they can’t give us any facts or numbers as to why we need the fee, then we would definitely look into repealing it.”

Rosenauer believes students think the SGA is not seen as a student body organization that connects one on one with the students it elects.

“I often feel that students believe SGA is a puppet to the administration and not really there for the students,” Rosenauer said. “We need better connection and that’s what I plan to do.”

Attendees of the debate should walk away from Monday’s event further educated on both SGA president candidates.

Katy Sisco (left) and Mary Beth Rosenauer (right) debated on Monday night for the SGA Presidential Election. Dave Hon and Brian Duskey

Katy Sisco and Mary Beth Rosenauer both did what they could to sway students into electing them as the future president of SGA.

Both candidates spoke heavily on being a voice for students and improving the student life at Western.

Rosenauer noted that she has always been interested in politics and she took that into account when deciding to run for president of SGA.
Other election coverage

News
Rosenauer plans to take on MWSU administration if elected
Sisco has fresh ideas for SGA
Student government election season begins

Opinions
Guest Column: Mary Beth Rosenauer targets communication
Guest Column: Katy Sisco will address critical issues

“Government politics is something that I have always been passionate about since high school,” Rosenauer said. “But not only that, just passionate about connecting with my students and peers. The idea of putting those two together just seem like a pretty good fit for me.”

Sisco said that since she has attended Western, she has been heavily involved with students on campus. She said that as a RA in the dorms she often hears complaints from students about things they hope will improve.

“I have been living here for three years and I am a senior RA,” Sisco said.  “I get really close to people and I find out what their issues and concerns are. I think that with my outside view looking in, I can see that there are a few issues that need to be tweaked or hit on.”

When asked about the improvement of Blum Union, both candidates seemed to be on the same page in making sure that students where the main focus when dealing with renovations.

Rosenauer noted that she has been working diligently to try and improve Blum starting with installing new TV sets and games, including pool tables.

“What is more important is if that is what the students want,” Rosenauer said. “That is actually something students are looking towards to. They have come to us at senate meetings and told us that this issue is something that is important to them.”

Sisco thinks that improving Blum would allow students to engage with things always set up on campus.

“I believe that there should be changes to Blum union seeing that it is a student union,” Sisco said. “People should be able to feel comfortable with going there and hanging out with people.”

Student of Western Nick Brothers expected the candidates to go into more detail, but explained that he walked away with good thought on both candidates.

“I appreciate both candidates passion and desire to communicate,” Brothers said. “I certainly would have liked a little bit more substance. I am fairly certain with my vote at this point and I am looking forward to working with them in the future as a student.”

Mary Beth Rosenauer and Dereck Thompson (left) are running against Katy Sisco and Dillon Williams (right).

Katy Sisco will be running for president of SGA, while Dillon Williams is teaming up with her as her potential vice president.

Sisco and Williams will be running against Mary Beth Rosenauer, a presidential hopeful, and Derek Thompson, who will be running with Rosenauer as her vice president.

Anthony Dougherty is running for WAC vice president and Brooke Witthaus is the candidate for vice chair.

Morgan Lindgren, director of student relations, will be conducting the election process, as well as other activities, including the debate.

“As the director of student relations, I am also considered the elections commissioner,” Lindgren said. “I helped get the applications prepared and available for students. I am working on putting the names online as well.”

“Elections will be March 6th and 7th and voting will take place online from the Missouri Western website,” Lindgren said. “The debate will be March 4th at 6:00p.m. in the  Enright building, rooms 214/216.”

The election will also include 15 candidates, who have filed for student senator positions.

The candidates are Taylor Enyeart, Kal Farley, Charles Flemons, Brandon Grieshaber, Daniel Hager, Brandon Hare, Travis Hart, Julie Hodson, Jonathan Hund, Shelbie Kirkendoll, Allie Mayes, Tyler O’Neill, Alexis Rivers, MonTerio Seewood and Jacob Teasley.

Travis Hart, student senator, will run for senate for the second time and if elected again, he wants to build new programs for Western and its students.

Hart said that he enjoys being on the senate because he knows he is doing what he can to better his school.

“I would like to continue to work on various pieces of legislation that I am currently working on now,” Hart said. “I really enjoy serving as a student senator. I work with faculty, staff members and students from all across campus. It is really humbling to be able to serve and make a difference.”

Lindgren said that applications for positions were due on February 15 and candidates did have to meet certain requirements in order to be billed as a candidate.

“These are all the people that turned in applications,” Lindgren said. “We sent out emails, we tweeted about it, and we even had posters hanging up around campus, allowing students to be aware of the due date. We tried to get the word out there.”

“All of those names will be on the ballot,” Lindgren said. “They had to meet the GPA requirement and they also had to be a full-time student by the time next semester starts.”

Lindgren encourages students to get out and vote this year. She noted that full participation from all students on campus is something she is promoting heavily so students are able to have a say on who is being elected.

“We hope that all students can vote so their voice can be heard,” Lindgren said. “It would be great if they could come to the debate so they can hear the candidates’ plans and ideas for the upcoming school year.”

“I wanted to be part of important decisions on campus that would affect me as a student,” Seewood said.

With a GPA of just over 2.25 and a full-time student status, Seewood was able to go to three SGA meetings, put in an application, and be voted in by the Senate.

Since joining the Senate, Seewood has seen several things get passed to improve Missouri Western, such as being able to play a role in continuing the tradition of rally towels at football games and new desks in academic buildings.

“An upgrade of the ‘living room’ in Potter Hall for the music, art and theatre students who practically live in the building” are just a few things that have shown forward progress for our university.

Although much has been improved by the student government, there is still room for more. The Senate is looking to reach out to the students to let them know more of what they do, why they are important and how they can help with many issues on campus.

“I think that will open up a channel of communication with the students that will make it easier for them to express what their concerns are and what they would like to see at Missouri Western,” Seewood said.

Unlike some senates we may know, Western’s senate works well together and has developed friendships within it that make coming to resolutions much easier and faster.

“We all respect each other and that’s the most important attribute when working collectively as a group.” Seewood said, and encourages other students to join the senate in making Missouri Western a better place to study.

Seewood was inspired by his grandfather who taught him the value of hard work at a young age.

“He always told me not to get involved with something unless I can give it my all.”

During this year’s Black History Month Seewood has been reflecting on the struggles of his grandparents and their generation. He said he often thinks and appreciates how their struggles afforded him the opportunities he has today.

Seewood has taken his grandfather’s advice and given the student government his all and says he enjoys having a “say-so” about important issues facing him and his peers.

While here at Western he is majoring in finance and economic and plans to graduate in the Spring of 2015. Until then, Seewood will continue serving the student’s and playing a key role in the progression of Missouri Western.

There are currently around 6,000 students attending Missouri Western State University, and last year, only 781 students voted in the SGA elections.  SGA hopes to get every student at Missouri Western to vote in this year’s upcoming election. The goal they plan to set forth is to ensure that an overall majority of the students to turn out to vote since two candidates have filed for President.

Members of the SGA are making sure that students are aware of the election whenever they set foot on campus.

“We have a lot of posters hung up around campus to let students know that the election is coming up and how they can vote,” Jacob Scott, SGA president said.  “We also hope to advertise in the Griffon News.”

Signs and posters will be all over campus come election week, but the SGA also plans to advertise in more modern ways as well.  We’re really trying to push social media this year, Scott said.

“We’ll definitely be sending out an email to students to remind them of the election as well,” director of student relations, Morgan Lindgren said.

But those aren’t the only methods that the SGA will be using to reach students on campus.  Members also hope to talk to students personally about the election.

“We are also going to be doing some face-to-face advertising,” Monterio Seewood, student senator said.  “The SGA hopes to inform as many students as possible about the election, and talking to people is a great way to get the word out.”

Students will have many reminders when it comes to voting for new and returning members of the SGA.  With various candidates running for different positions within the student government, current members hope that any new student leaders bring interesting ideas and perspectives to their positions.

“SGA is really looking forward to positive new student leaders,” Seewood said.

Morgan Lindgren agrees, but stresses that it really isn’t up to any one individual.

“It’s really up to the students, but we’re all hoping to get some passionate leaders in SGA,” Lindgren said.

Students will be able to vote online at the Missouri Western State University homepage.  Those without Internet can be provided with an actual ballot, Scott said.

The SGA encourages all students to go online and vote in this year’s election.  Campaigning for the election begins on February 27, and students will be able to vote on March 6 and 7.

The Student Government Association is accepting applications through Feb. 15. Director for Student Relations Morgan Lindgren encourages students who are interested to become involved with SGA.

“It is a great way to get involved and be informed about things on campus. You get to represent and stand up for your fellow students,” Lindgren said.

Executive Vice President Lauren Upton agreed with Lindgren. Upton also shared why she became a part of student government.

“I like being a part of SGA because I feel like I am doing my part to better Missouri Western the best I can. It is a great way to help students with whatever they need,” Upton said.

Students interested in becoming an executive member of SGA or a senator must meet certain requirements. To become president or executive vice president the applicant must have an accumulative grade point average of 3.0. To become a student senator the applicant must have an accumulative grade point average of 2.25. All positions require students to be full time.

While being a part of SGA comes with extra responsibilities, such as attending bi-monthly meetings and becoming involved in the committee, there are also benefits that come with the senate seat.

SGA President Jacob Scott explained the importance of SGA members maintaining the required GPA.

“Student government holds the highest academic standard on campus for the student leaders. It is important that the leader is a leader, not just in SGA but in the classroom,” Scott said.

In the upcoming election there are six executive positions to be filled and 20 open senate seats. Students interested in applying must have applications turned in by Feb. 15 to Blum 217 by 4:30 p.m. in the SGA Suite.

The debate for presidential and vice presidential candidates will be March 4 and voting will take place March 6 and 7.

Meyer comes in with a strong resume to support her and her main topic was about the opportunities and challenges that come with having a successful Student affairs program.

“When I think about the key areas of opportunity and challenges for any campus, I think of three things,” Meyer said. “I think of the people, the places, and the purpose. What are we without the students, and what are students without educators?”

Meyer received her education from two different Universities. She received her Doctor of Philosophy, Student Affairs in Higher Education from KansasStateUniversity.

In august of 1995 she received her Bachelor of Science, English/Journalism, and Communication Minor at Emporia state University, while also achieving her Master of Science, Counselor Education, and Student Personnel Emphasis from Emporia state in 1997.

With the generation changing from different technology and more advanced programs being installed, Meyer said that it is important to have an upbeat and active student affairs office.

“In order to effectively serve all of these people and diversity of learners, a vibrant student affairs commission must be able to provide adequate staffing to continue to address the demographic change,” Meyer said. “Today’s students are certainly not yesterday’s students.”

“When it comes to challenges and opportunities, the people associated with the university, fortunately or unfortunately present both challenges and opportunities,” Meyer said. “We got technology, returning veterans, increase instances of mental health issues, and simply a new generation that is different than our generation.”

Meyer has gained experience working as the Assistant Vice president of student affairs at FortHayesStateUniversity from 2006 to present.

She served as a member of the Senior Student Affairs administrative team, collaborating with the Enrollment Management and Student Services Clusters to focus on administrative planning and policy development.

She also served as a member of the President’s Cabinet, administratively planning, developing policy, and creating constituency building affiliations with other Cabinet members such as the Vice President for Administration and Finance, Provost, and Academic Deans.

Through most of the experience that Meyer has received at FortHayes, she has learned how interact with not only administration but also with students around her campus.

Meyer noted that establishing different goals for the program and making sure it goes down the right path has to be one of the main focuses from the student affairs office right now.

“I think that we need to know where we are going,” Meyer said. “I don’t think one person will create that so I think it starts with relationship building. I like to look at the politics of a situation and the context of a situation. With that being said, I think we need to have goals laid out and an understanding on where we are going.”

The goals that Meyer could set if elected could affect that senate including student senator Travis Hart.

Hart said that he understands that whoever is elected VP is important to him because that VP will have a final say on any programs or bills that he or any other senate might want to pass.

“I think that the VP of student affairs should work with students and the student government,” Hart said. “To have an open door policy is really important. The VP student affairs have the option to veto legislation and the senate. Recently we have not had anything vetoed from my understanding.”

Hart noted that the next VP will be important because there are issues now that need to be handled and the VP of Student affairs will dictate what happens with those issues.

“The VP of student affairs also advises student government,” Hart said. “We tell them what is going on around campus and if we ever need help with drafting a policy or creating legislation, it’s best to have a VP in place that has an open door policy.”

After a month of recess, SGA is preparing for the spring semester. With the Student Success Act under negotiations, SGA President Jacob Scott is prepared to advocate for students.

“Certainly all options are on the table, but I think that as we get back into the semester we will be looking harder at our budget situation and the needs of our students and really trying to come to a consensus as to what to do with this fee,” Scott said. “It’s going to be taken a lot more seriously as we progress more towards an internal deadline on when we will have this whole thing figured out.”

Governmental Relations Committee Chair, Travis Hart doesn’t foresee any changes to the fee happening in the coming semester.

“We talked more in-depth about the Save Our School Act. We had a good discussion with the administration,” Hart said. “Currently there is no policy put forth by the students or the administration. It seems to my knowledge that there may be no other work to be done on that policy.

Hart also said that SGA is committed to working on projects that began before the end of the fall semester.

“Right now, in the Governmental Relations Committee we are looking at working on the drug policy,” Hart said. “I’m also personally working on an honor chords proposal, where graduates can wear their honor chords from National Honor’s Society because currently the policy by the university is that they cannot wear honors chords. We as a committee are also looking at changing library hours, in particular the hours during finals week.”

Mary Beth Rosenauer, campus advancement chair, wants to see the community and students become more involved in student government.

“I would like to, once a month, get more involved with the community and have the community more importantly get involved with us so I think that that will be good.” Rosenauer said. “We are looking to maybe reach out to students. A lot of the times we sit back and wait for students to come to us with ideas but we are going to reach out to students and get some ideas just to see what they have in mind.”

Scott agrees with Rosenaur, and would like to encourage students to come to senators with their concerns.

“We are certainly open to any suggestions or issues the students may have, said Scott. “We’re going to be committed to assuring that every student dollar is spent wisely and insuring that every student voice that would like to be heard has a fair chance to get their fair say in all of the processes.”

Dr. Christopher Bond, Western’s tobacco implementation committee chair, said he is reviewing every step before the policy goes into affect July 1 to ensure all issues are worked out. He said all universities that implement a smoke-free policy are going to have issues.

“This is why we have a task force in place. We have a plan to deal with the ‘what if’s’ if someone abuses the policy,” Bond said. “We will know what to do if someone is hiding, and smoking behind the dumpsters like they do at Northwest Missouri State University.”

There are numerous universities throughout the state of Missouri that have implemented tobacco-free policies and even more are preparing to jump on board. Each university approaches the policy differently with enforcement regulations, some offering cessation courses and nicotine packages.

Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Western President, said he thinks the cessation courses Missouri Southern offers students, faculty, and staff are a positive aspect to consider. His main concerns about the policy when implemented are the two e’s: enforcement and education.

“Enforcing a policy like this can get complicated; I think most people approach it and say ‘Let’s see how it works out’,” Vartabedian said. “Education is a big one. Anytime you deal with an addiction substance, you need to help it go away.”

Missouri Southern has an eight week program in place for students to take online for tobacco cessation. “There are students who pass and fail the course,” Missouri Southern health center director Julie Stamps said. “Its success depends on how bad the individual wants to quit their addiction to tobacco products.”

The way in which the policy will be enforced is still unknown at this point. Bond said the enforcement committee will meet next week to look at ways to control this issue. Universities such as Northwest Missouri State enforce their policy voluntarily. They leave its students in charge of reporting the abuse of the policy on campus grounds.

“Nothing is written in stone. We will most likely do training such as was done with the Green Dot Program,” Bond said. “Students will most likely go through Student Affairs if constantly caught smoking.”

The University of Central Missouri and Western will have their policies go into effect by next school year with the same problems they must address. Jeff Murphy, UCM assistant director of university relations said at this time they don’t charge for nicotine replacement therapy, which includes patches, gum and lozenges. Western will go through the same process and will have to find a new method for paying for the cessation resources after grant money from the MO Foundation for Health (through Heartland) runs out.

“We are able to do this because we are part of a grant through CASE (Campus Community Coalitions Advocating Smoke Free Environments) from the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse,” Murphy said. “If that grant goes away, we would have to consider a small charge for the nicotine replacement while we look for other grant funding.”

Bond has been working on smoke-free research for the past 12 years. He says he knows what works and what doesn’t. Western’s policy strategy is being used by universities such as the University of Missouri- Kansas City and universities in Nebraska and Washington State. Other universities have warned Bond, along with others, of the signs to look for when the policy goes into effect.

“You just can’t implement a policy overnight like other universities have done,” Bond said. “We’ve been warned about the loop-holes and how smoking areas are not effective.

Western’s leaders will meet within the next couple of weeks to discuss enforcement, education and ways to continue the cessation packages for students, faculty and staff.

At the Nov. 16 fee advisory meeting, Student Government Association President Jacob Scott questioned the need for the $75 fee for full-time students when the university has record millions in surplus in reserves. The fee, which was implemented in the fall of 2012, has collected roughly $600,000 to date.

“It wasn’t the Save Our Reserve Act. It was the Save Our School Act,” Scott said.

Scott, along with SGA members Travis Hart, Lauren Upton and Ashley Stegall were expecting that the money collected would be available for reappropriation after the university did not receive an anticipated budget cut for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

“I tried to be honest with people from the get-go,” Vartabedian said. “We had some major bottom line problems particularly if we were looking at a 12.5 percent cut even without that we still have a major bottom line problem at the university.”

Judy Grimes, interim vice president of Student Affairs and dean of students, agreed with Vartabedian that the Student Success Act is an important contribution to the university budget and interpreted the act how it was written.

“What I don’t see in the act that was passed is anything that says we’re only going to appropriate this money from student fees if all these areas are totally wiped out,” Grimes said.

During the 2012 budget crisis, the Student Success Act was passed by SGA to ensure the protection of five programs. The five areas that were to receive funds from the act were Recreation Services, the Center for Academic Support, the Student Success Center, Student Life and Career Services. Scott is now questioning how those funds are being spent since the university budget never received a cut from the state.

“The president says that the money we approved will go to the five areas we said it would go to and that is true but the question still remains, what about the money that we pay in our tuition that goes to the previous areas?” Scott said.

Scott feels that the SGA has been misinformed as to where and how the money has been spent.

“I was told by the university administration that the money that was previously allocated to those five areas was sitting in an account waiting for us to decide how that money would be spent,” Scott said. “Then I got to the meeting on Friday and found out that the money had already been spent in the areas of which I don’t know yet. So I’m waiting to find that information out at the next meeting.”

Since the Student Success Act fee was included in the overall university budget instead of deposited into a separate account for SGA to reappropriate, the administration was able to withdrawal its funding from the five outlined programs to focus on university expenses such as deferred maintenance.

“Most of the leaders at that time understood that it wasn’t just the anticipation of that cut that troubled us,” Vartabedian said. “That it was millions and millions of dollars in deferred maintenance, enrollment that seemed to be getting smaller with fewer revenues for us, unfunded mandatories, and lot of other difficulties that we were dealing with.”

The itemized list of critical deferred maintenance includes Spratt and arena roofing, renovations to Popplewell, Wilson, and Potter and repaving parking lot H. The total cost of deferred maintenance is $4,039,000 and the Student Success Act collected approximately $600,000 during the fall semester alone. If the administration were to use the Student Success Act money for deferred maintenance it would account for 15 percent of the total costs.

“We have tremendous deferred maintenance needs on this campus that I don’t know how they are going to be met,” Vartabedian said. “Particularly if we don’t have an ongoing revenue source, which at least the Student Success Act helps us with in dealing with bottom line needs such as deferred maintenance. We have at least $4 million in deferred maintenance that would be in the absolutely essential category.”

While Vartabedian considers the Student Success Act fee a solution to some of the university’s reoccurring maintenance expenditures, Scott disagrees that the money should be appropriated to the campus maintenance.

“Deferred maintenance issues are a state problem,” Scott said. “That’s a university problem, that’s not a student problem.”

The administration and SGA’s interpretation of the Student Success Act differ; however, Scott hopes an end goal will be achieved.

“Quite frankly, I don’t think they know what we want; I’m optimistic though,” Scott said. “We can pull through this as a student body and as a university and administration. We can pull together as a cohesive unit and insure that students get what they deserve.”

The second Student Success Act committee meeting will be held Dec. 7 in the Presidential Dining Hall located in Blum Union at 4 p.m.

According to the SGA Bylaws and Policy Guide the money allocated to Student Affairs primarily funds the Center for Multicultural Education, the Center for Student Engagement, intramural programs and Student Leadership Programs. Judy Grimes, the interim vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students, explained the importance of the SGA allocation.

“It’s pretty normal in higher education that direct student fees support Student Affairs,” Grimes said. “You’ll see it all over the country and especially in Missouri… the students in SGA wanted to provide in the constitution for a fixed allocation so that there would be some consistency in funding programming for students because it’s really focused on programming for students.”

SGA President Jacob Scott said that in years previous to the allocation to Student Affairs funding for the CSE, CME, and the Non-Traditional Student Center “were funded up to the discretion of the SGA president.”

Scott wants the student government to play a more active role in the disbursement of the allocation.

“Personally, I think that it should go back to the Student Government Association. We can fund the money out to the offices,” Scott said. “I think that we can create fixed allocations within Student Government and that’s something I’m pursuing as SGA president now is to get that money back into the Student Government’s hands.”

At the end of the fiscal year, remaining allocation funds are carried forward to the next year. Last year, Student Affairs had a rollover of $95,030.48, bringing Student Affair’s beginning balance to $180,776.95.

“We have to keep some rollover there, and we work with SGA to do that so in case say the [enrollment] numbers go down then we don’t collect as much money,” Grimes said.

While Grimes highlighted the importance of Student Affairs having a rollover, Scott would like to see the balance given back to the Student Government.

“I would like to see that roll back over to SGA. I think that we could do a lot of good things with that money and especially given the fact that Student Affairs already has their own operating budget.” Scott said, “I think we could use that money for a lot of good.”

Although the allocation is transferred from the SGA budget, the funds are collected from a student fee.

“What happens is you have a Student Government fee each semester… and then of that entire collection of fees it creates what is known as the SGA budget,” Scott said. “Then what was written into our constitution was that 20 percent of that budget would go to Student Affairs which usually equal about $90,000, but of course it kind of depends upon enrollment.”

To date, Student Affairs approximates the total costs at $122,004.75, not including spring budgets for the CSE and CME.

The new desks (above right) which are wider and more flexible then the old desks (above left) are in place in a classroom in Looney complex. Looney, Popplewell and Wilson all received new desks and tables as many were again and outdated.

In March of this year, the SGA voted to allocate $99,558 to purchase new chairs and tables to replace aging furniture across campus.

The announcement came with some criticism at the time from those who thought it was strange that student fee money would be used to purchase property for the university.

“There was some opposition at the first, but now all I hear is compliments from faculty and students,” Instructional Technology Director Cori Criger said. “It’s a big improvement for the students especially.”

One of the best improvements Criger says is the benefit to students with disabilities. Each classroom throughout the campus now has at least two tables and two chairs to accommodate students that need that type of seating.

“What it means for students with disabilities is that these classrooms are now ready and waiting for them,” Disability Services Coordinator Michael Ritter said. “ No longer do they have to request special furniture on the first day of class. The new furniture brings these classrooms into the 21st century.”

Criger said the old way of accommodating students’ needs placed the responsibility of fulfilling the need on the student who had to go through channels to get a table or chair when needed.

The furniture was totally changed in 10 rooms across campus. Four additional rooms for renovation had to keep the tablet type desks to accommodate current capacities, but tables and chairs were added to the back of the classrooms. Two other computer labs received new furnishings, but the technology fee funded those changes.

“For many years, I’ve been an advocate for replacing the 1970s vintage tablet arm chairs with tables and chairs,” Dean and Executive Director of Western Institute Gordon Mapley said. “Many 2012 adult bodies do not fit well in tablet arm chairs.”

Former SGA President Allison Norris and Sen. Amber Nold are credited with the success of the plan to replace the furniture with SGA funds. It was one of the last legislative decisions from the last SGA session.

“I am very excited about the classroom furniture upgrades and I applaud the SGA for providing the funding,” Ritter said.

Wilson Hall received most of the renovations with a total of five rooms renovated with new tables and chairs and two rooms renovated with new tablet style desks to keep the some room occupancy.

Looney Sports Complex received two rooms with new tables and chairs and one with new tablet style desks.

Popplewell Hall had two rooms renovated with new tables and chairs and one with new tablet style desks.

Eder Hall had one room renovated with new tables and chairs.

To see the before and after photos of these rooms, go to griffonnews.com

After two Senate resignations, Clifford Petersen and Matthew Hunt, there are eight seats to fill in SGA. President Jacob Scott hopes to have the positions filled in time for the SGA Retreat in October. The date for the retreat has not been set.

“Anyone interested could potentially become a senator. I would encourage freshmen to apply so they will have four years of experience as a senator,” Scott said.

SGA Administrative Coordinator Kathy Kelly also encourages students to become involved in the student government process.

“If you want to make a difference and be a good steward of your SGA fees, have a voice,” Kelly said.

SGA Vice Chair Lauren Upton strove to make students feel that student government officials care about issues that concern the student body.

“Jacob and I are really wanting SGA to be more transparent than it may have been in the past, to where students feel like they can definitely come in and talk to us about any problems that they are having. We just want them to know that they are important to us and we’re going to listen to any problems they have,” Upton said.

Scott agrees as he said, “The best way students can make sure their voice is heard is just to come to the meetings and be a part of the process — so if you want a good government you have to be a good citizen and get involved.”

Senator resignations were not the only issue that SGA covered. While in session the senate approved the purchase of 3,000 rally towels that were to be distributed during the football home opener. Upton is looking forward to students using the towels and hopes they will raise school spirit.

While Upton wanted to boost school spirit on campus, Scott foresees the rally towels becoming a tradition at home games.

“The rally towels were something we did last year and we received an overwhelming response that was positive. This was a tradition that we could start together and the towels are a great way to get people involved and get them excited about the game,” Scott said.

Along with the rally towel approval, SGA also approved their yearly bylaws and confirmed Tony Dougherty as the new vice chair of the Western Activities Council. Senate meetings are held biweekly on Monday at 6:00 p.m. in Blum 220.

The night also included award celebrations where organizations around the campus were awarded for the work they have accomplished at Western.

The night’s main goal was to honor students on campus for not only their hard work, but also for the dedication and effort that they put in for their organizations. Individual awards were given to students and staff, which included most outstanding senator, lifetime achievement award and adviser of the year.

Scott personally wanted to thank everyone for showing him support for this event. He stated that he will work diligently each day to better Western. The event showed him that people actually did support him and he was very appreciative for that.

“I felt that the atmosphere was phenomenal tonight,” Scott said. “I am very excited about this opportunity because I have so many ideas that I want to show the senate here on campus. I want to be the advocate for students. I am a vocal type of guy and I think that I am the best person to represent the issues of students.”

Food and drinks was served to everyone in attendance of the event. The ceremony was a formal event, so all students and staff were dressed to impress with the women wearing dresses and skirts and the men wearing slacks and ties.

Student Jayson Reading, who attended the event, said he was rather surprised at how big the attendance was. Reading majors in music, and wanted to attend to show support to the new president of SGA. Though it was his first time attending an event like this one, he said that it would not be his last.

“It’s always good to see people get awarded for their work and their accomplishments,” Reading said. “I just feel that both Jacob Scott and Lauren Upton are perfect for the job. I am behind them 100 percent.”

President Vartabedian was in attendance to inaugurate both Scott and Upton in their new positions. Afterwards, both gave their speeches and received a standing ovation when they were done.

Former President Alison Norris handed down her position to Scott after completing her term. Scott was her Vice President when she was elected and she is very comfortable with leaving the position to Scott. Norris stated that ever since she has known Scott, he has been one of the hardest workers that she has ever met.

“Me and Jacob have always been like partners,” Norris said. “I always had to make the big decisions, but I would always ask for his input because I included him in everything. I don’t think he will have any problems taking over for me.”

Norris stated that what makes Scott so special is the fact that he is so passionate about the students at Western. Scott has always wanted to put the students first because he believes that is his first priority.

Author of the bill for a student fee, Sen. Amanda Johnson and Sen. Brian Shewell look over wording of the bill which was approved by SGA April 2. Photo by Jason Brown

The Student Success Act, which spent weeks in committee before being brought to the Senate, implements a $75 fee on full-time students, a $50 fee on part-time students and a $25 fee on summer students.

Student Success Act, Meeting Minutes, Roll Call Vote

Sen. Amanda Johnson presented the Student Success Act, which faced several failed and successful amendments.

Sen. Clifford Peterson offered an amendment to increase the fee to $125 and also add an end to the legislation after three years—also called a sunset clause. Petersen also suggested that the student body be allowed to vote on legislation within one year, giving administration time to adjust if the fee was struck down by the students. Petersen said that the amendments might have passed if they were separate.

“I should have made a motion to unblock them,” Petersen said. “It just went a little fast, and I wasn’t ready.”

Separate or together, Johnson said that she opposed both amendments. Johnson said that increasing the amount of money for the Student Success Act would be “way too complicated.”

“I feel like $75 is a significant amount,” Johnson said. “A lot of students are opposed to even the $75.”

“I don’t ever see a reason why we don’t need the $75 fee,” Johnson said. “If we were to get some of the state appropriations back—we need that money. We want to grow.”

Clifford’s amendments failed, but in a roll call vote, he voted in affirmation of the legislation.

An amendment to increase the number of students that serve on the committee to four and decrease the number of administrators to two failed as well.

The only amendment to pass was one that struck out a single sentence in the legislation that didn’t give the advisory committee the power to increase or decrease the fee. Still, any changes to the legislation must be passed through the student Senate.

After deliberation on the amendments, Sen. Andrea Vaccaro delivered another speech in affirmation, citing Northwest Missouri State’s $500 fee that was passed by their student Senate. She said that, in comparison, the Student Success Act was a reasonable fee.

While questioning Vaccaro, several senators questioned the method of passage for the legislation. Senate will not allow the student body to vote on the legislation.

“Because I think we have the students’ best interest at heart, and we have the voice to tell them,” Vaccarro said.

Johnson also presented legislation for new SGA bylaws to supplement Article XI, the provision in the constitution that could let students vote on the Student Success Act if they secure signatures from 10 percent of the student Body. The bylaw would require students to adhere to the university’s policies regarding petitions and limit students to a thirty-day time frame after the Senate’s passage of a bylaw for any petition they wish to file under Article XI of the SGA Constitution. There were no speeches in negation nor were there any speeches in affirmation following Johnson’s authorship speech. The by-law passed the senate with a majority vote, but a single Senator voted against the bylaw.

In a speech, Johnson said that the bylaw was for clarification purposes.

“We thought it was time to have something updated so students have somewhere to go if they want to push something through like that,” Johnson said.

Barry Hersh, a student potentially seeking to petition the SGA under Article XI, was not opposed to the bylaw.

“There needs to be a timeline or else 20 years down the road someone might try to repeal this,” Hersh said.

He said that before he seeks action under Article XI, he would like to speak with the SGA President Alison Norris.

“The petition is a last resort,” Hersh said. “The university needs the money or else it’s in trouble. 700 signatures is not going to that difficult to pull off.”

Mel Klinkner, vice president for financial planning and administration, speaks to students at Monday’s Student Government committee meeting. At least 30 members of the Black Student Union attended to voice their concerns about the fee and gain information. Jason Brown | Photo Editor

Fee Proposal Document: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

“We wanted to have a fee that would directly affect students,” Norris said. “That they would notice if they didn’t have some of these things.”

Monday night, members of the Black Student Union, led by President Louis Erby, criticized SGA’s strategy in informing and communicating with students.

The largest criticism concerned email notification of SGA’s open forums for students to voice their concerns about the fee.

“Maybe we should have sent out more emails,” Norris said, “but we wanted to use a different tactic because there was smoking ban forums last year which had less turnout.”

Norris referenced that students were notified about those forums via email. A single past email was located in regards to a focus group asking students to contact Student Governor Peter Gregory if they were interested in participating in a focus group. Additionally, on March 21 an email was sent out to all students requesting applicants for SGA positions in the new administration.

With the new tactic, Norris wanted to target campus leaders at the President’s Leadership Committee. Using mouth-to-mouth, Norris’s wanted the leaders of organizations to inform other students about the forum. Erby was one of these student leaders, encouraging at least 30 members of the Black Student Union to attend SGA’s open-forum committee meeting.

“They came and voiced their opinions, and we were grateful for their opinions,” Norris said.

Brenna Nelson-Wilkes believes that SGA could have communicated better with students in regards to the proposed fee.

“If you want us to care about the things that are going on then you need to show us that you care if you want us as students to be responsive to what is going on around us,” Nelson-Wilkes said. “The only thing they advertised was their elections, and we don’t know anything about them.”

Jacob Scott, executive vice president and president-elect, said that communication is always a concern for SGA.

“Communication is always the $60,000 question,” Scott said. “With anything in life, how can we communicate in a society that is so capitalist that is so—trying to convey their own message and time is always of the essence. Can we convey what we want to do?

The main concern that really wasn’t addressed tonight was that students wanted to be communicated about a student fee but they don’t want to be communicated about every little issue of SGA’s. It’s finding that balancing act.”

Criticism wasn’t the only voice at the meeting. The Black Student Union also wanted to ensure that funding for the Center for Multicultural Education was secured since it isn’t included in the Save Our School Student Success Act.

Mel Klinkner, vice president for financial planning and administration, assured that the CME was not even being considered being cut.

Nicholas Brothers also spoke at the forum, attempting to rally students and administration to petition the State Government to increase revenue through taxes.

“Once again, we’re fighting the wrong fight,” Brothers said. “Let’s start yelling instead of whining.”

The fee proposal has accountability for the money worked into the legislation. The legislation calls for the formation of a special committee that will ensure that the funds are being used for what the legislation intends. Scott said that this accountability is unlike anything any other student government in Missouri has passed.

Scott and Upton won with 449 votes while Cody Beyers and Kelsey Samenus received 308 votes, totaling 757 total voters.

President Jacob Scott takes on the head position of SGA. Photo by Jason Brown

“I am so excited,” Scott said. “It’s going to be a great honor to serve students for an entire year as SGA president.”

Scott said that Beyers and Samenus were worthy opponents and that they are welcome to be a part of SGA in the future.

“Even though I’m going to be president,” Scott said, “their ideas will live on—their ideas of accountability and leadership and enthusiasm—those ideas will live on in my administration.”

Beyers and Samenus’ campaign scope was broad. On both election nights it was reported that both of them were either going to door to door at the residence halls or making phone calls to Western students. Beyers believes that this strategy helped get voters out.

“It was a really good voter turnout,” Beyers said. “Obviously we didn’t attract the same crowd that Jacob did. The man on the street—people seeing our faces—it was a good approach but Jacob has more connections I suppose.”

Scott admitted that he was never too worried about the election.

“I’d lie to you if I said I wasn’t nervous,” Scott said, “but I know that I have the best supporters that campaigned so hard for me that helped me out so much. I’d just be lost without them.”

Even though he lost the election, Beyers said that he would like to see the budget reconstructed next year.

“I’d like to see more line item things so the students can see where their money is going and why it’s going there,” Beyers said.

Beyers said that he doesn’t know yet if he will apply for a directorship. Scott said that if Beyers or Samenus applies that he would certainly consider them for directorships along with anyone else who applies.

Student Governor Peter Gregory, Executive Vice President Jacob Scott, and President Alison Norris listen as a senator expresses their views on the new funds for the chair. The notice of action passed unanimously. Photo by Jason Brown. March 6, 2012.

“It just kind of hit home with me,” Nold said. “When I first came here in 2009, I was in a classroom where the chairs leaned way, way back, and it was horrible. I’ve been in a car wreck, so I have to sit at these tables.”

Nold said that she had to visit Disability Services to obtain a special chair to accommodate her. One of the rooms SGA will be replacing chairs in is Popplewell 102, a room that Nold said she has had a class in the past four semesters.

“I’m in there all the time; I know the challenges of that room,” Nold said. “I have to sit in that table in that cruddy chair, and it hurts my back. I want to help the other students.”

Disability Services Coordinator Michael Ritter attended the meeting and also helped SGA in regards to Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.

“That makes people like me very happy,” Ritter said. “We have a lot of different folks coming to campus, and what we don’t want to do is have classrooms that are not accessible for them and have to make special arrangements for them.”

SGA President Alison Norris said that the project will give students with disabilities a chance to sit in desks without special accommodations but that it will help all students as well.

“This affects everyone,” Norris said. “Everyone has to sit in desks in classes, and the fact is that the desks that we have right now they don’t look professional, they don’t look like a university’s—they’ve been here since the ’70s. I’ve heard all kinds of students from all walks of life complain about those desks.”

The money comes from SGA’s special project fund of $174,000. The fund will have approximately $70,000 after the chairs have been purchased. Norris said that there are current plans in the works to use the rest of the money by the end of the semester.

A large portion of the special projects fund is roll over funds from the previous administration. Norris and the senators wish to see as much of the special projects fund spent this year to avoid a roll over.

“It’s our job to listen to the students,” Norris said. “I thought it was about time to get those changed and do something that students will see and will affect them every day.”

Presidential candidates voice their views during the debate Wednesday, February 29. Photo by Jason Brown.

The SGA presidential debates Wednesday night helped the students in attendance get acquainted with presidential candidates Jacob Scott and Cody Beyers. The debate hosted by SGA and The Griffon News let the two candidates react to each others policies and plans for next year.

One of the main topics that the debate gravitated toward was the transparency of SGA’s nearly half-a-million dollar budget, something Beyers wants to do if elected. Beyers said that his analysis of the budget took 25-26 hours.

“There’s no reason that someone should have to take 25-26 hours to study a piece of paper and figure out what happened to their money,” Beyers said.

He also wants to cut the travel budget for SGA members and make those funds available for students to request from the Financial Oversight Committee.

“They’re not spending enough of the students’ money. It’s the students’ money, and they’re hoarding it,” Beyers said.

Beyers Sound Bite

Scott said the he also wants to increase the amount of funding to FOC so students who wish to travel for academic reasons can do so.

Leadership skills also seemed to be a key point that the candidates were brought back to. Scott, current Executive Vice President for SGA defended his experience when Beyers said that his experience stemmed from him being a Golden Griffon.

“I want to be very real with you for a second,” Scott said. “I come from a very different perspective, okay. I had a 19 ACT score when I came to Missouri Western and I didn’t have any scholarships, okay. So I’m not a Golden Griffon Scholar, but what I did from day one is I worked extremely hard and I’ve got a very good GPA—I’ve got a 3.8 GPA—and I achieved everything through hard work and being involved and doing those things”

Scott Sound Bite

Scott said he wants to ensure that Western students have the same opportunity to achieve through hard work, especially facing the University’s shrinking budget.

After the debate Senator Brian Shewell said that since he serves on Senate he can’t endorse a candidate, but that he felt both candidates are going to be good. Shewell felt that Scott did the best job debating.

“You could really tell when he was up there he was really passionate—I’m not saying that Cody wasn’t, Cody did just a phenomenal job—you could just see the passion in his eyes that he really wants this,” Shewell said.

The election will take March 6-7. Students will be able to vote online via a link on the Missouri Western home page.

Photos by Jason Brown

[slideshow]

Scott and Beyers will debate the issues tonight at Kemper Recital Hall in Spratt at 7 p.m.

Previous articles
The Candidates
Jacob Scott the best candidate for SGA
Beyers runs on platform of ‘change’

Recent Stories
Senate asks for more information before proposing solid fee
Bumpy start for SGA this Spring Semester
SGA sets the bar high, new senators take positions

Editorial & Opinion
Editorial: Elect the right person for SGA
Editorial: Senate should not vote on new fee
Jacob Scott the best candidate for SGA

“Change” is the slogan and goal for SGA president candidate Cody Beyers and running mate Kelsey Samenus as both are hoping that their inexperience with SGA will ultimately change things up for the student government elections.

Beyers hopes his inexperience with SGA will appeal to students. Photo by Jason Brown.

“I was looking at the budget plan and I noticed student government has a $7,520 operational cost, which is up $1,520 from last year,” Beyers said.  “With that, they’ve done things like buy new furniture for themselves. None of this has to be passed through student government. I want to take money out of these over-inflated budgets that don’t give money back to the students. With more money for on-campus and off-campus activities, students will be happier and it will make them want to get involved.”

Currently the Samenus and Beyers duo has been meeting with organizations and trying to find out how to provide more activities and programs for students. Beyers said their main emphasis is face time with the students.

“If elected I want it so that students are seeing results,” Beyers said. “I want to push things through and get more done then what is being done now. If at the end of the year the students aren’t happy with the results, I’m going to take the amount that students pay, which is $50 every semester, and we are going to take it to a student vote and try to get it lowered. “

Beyers and Samenus’ campaign manager Noah Green feels that students should stand behind their message of change and bettering students financially. Beyers, Samenus and Green have been all working on team campaigning and marketing plans for nearly two months.

“These guys are out here working as hard as anybody can work meeting students, talking to students, talking to organizations and doing their homework as far as SGA goes,” Green said. “I am very familiar with the organization; that kind of helps in preparation.”

Green also feels that it’s time for someone new to take the reigns, rather then Scott’s team.

“You have all this money sitting here,” Green said. “It’s $50 a semester per student, and you really provide them with about $10 a semester worth of services to what they actually get back. If you don’t vote for Cody and Kelsey, then you’re, in essence, voting for the same. What student government needs is not an insider. We’ve seen how well that’s been working.”

The team’s goals include filling Senate, lowering student fees and making more students aware of what SGA can do for them.  SGA Vice Presidential candidate Samenus addresses her main goals of bettering the campus.

“I just want to be a voice for the students,” Samenus said. “Talking to Cody, he had great ideas. He is very motivated and determined to change a few things here on campus having to do with the student government. I want to change the parking, school spirit, and campus involvement; hopefully getting more people here on campus, keeping them here on the weekends.”

When addressing concerns about the other SGA candidates, neither Beyers nor Green are worried about their lack of experience due to not currently being a part of SGA.

“If we are going to bring experience in the question, is it really fair to say he is the more experienced one?” Green asked about Scott. “He personally has been working in the office for a year and a half.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s bad experience. He hasn’t been effective. He is in charge of the Senate, and they can’t get a full Senate.”

Beyers also feels that as President he will take responsibility and attempt to make his team supersede the goals accomplished by the current presidential team.

“I don’t know Alison on a personal basis,” Beyers said. “I can’t say anything bad about her. The couple times I have been into her office, she has been working on getting her wedding plans, which is totally fine. It’s a big deal. But I think there’s other places to do that then in your student government office.”

The offices of WAC Vice President, Director of Finance and Director of Communications were filled as of this week. Robin Ussher resigned from WAC Vice President to further her education and Vice Chair Lauren Dillon took her position. Brittany Edwards will take the office of Director of Communications and Taylor Kram will become the Director of Finance.

Norris believes that Kram is just as qualified as her predecessor, Nick McCutcheon.

“She is a very intelligent woman,” Norris said. “She is very good with budgets, which is why homecoming was so good this year.”

After Constitutional changes last spring, SGA changed the GPA requirements for certain officers. The GPA requirement has risen from 2.5 to a 3.0 to be WAC Vice President or Vice Chair.

“Robin Ussher was grandfathered in, and was elected by the student body for this position,” Norris said. “The requirement when she ran was a 2.5 GPA.”

Sebastian Smith, Entertainment Director for WAC, believes the new GPA requirement is too high.

“I feel that they are hurting the organization by raising the GPA requirement,” Smith said. “It’s a high benchmark to set.”

The WAC Vice Chair, Lauren Dillon was moved up to the position of Vice President, which meant her position was open. However, Smith was not qualified for the position because he didn’t meet the GPA requirements.

Smith believes that the 2.5 was a good benchmark, and the organization would have opened itself to a lot more students in the bench pool instead of a 3.0.

“Academics are the main reason we are here, but the GPA requirement shouldn’t be the main focus,” Smith said. “You want the person who will do the best job for the organization.”

Though Smith didn’t qualify for Dillion’s position, he continued to serve in his previous position as the Director of Entertainment for WAC.

“I struggled with math, which brought my GPA down, but I passed,” Smith said. “I have a 2.8 GPA.”

According to Dillon, it’s time for the organization to get to work.

“We need to make sure we stay on schedule,” Dillon said.“The organization has changes in positions, it’s hard to stay on track, but we are doing pretty well.”

The organization is still planning and creating new events for the student body. Though the GPA standard for officer positions could create problems in the future, everything is running smoothly.

“The main goal is to get back on track,” Dillon said.

At a joint committee meeting last Wednesday, SGA executives announced that they are still waiting on how the University will respond to the $3.4 million shortfall in the budget. The meeting was open to students and also acted a forum for opinion on the proposal of a new fee.

The Joint-Committee session focused on three main areas of discussion; where should the money from a fee be placed in the budget, how much of a fee should be levied and should the vote a fee be confined strictly to the Senate?

Senator Christina Jennings proposed that the fee be used for campus expansion or services initiatives. Nick Brothers, a student, believes that this resembles a slush fund.

“Frankly, I believe there’s a lot of room for abuse in that,” Brothers said.

Other Senators and students believe that the fee should be used strictly to maintain the current conditions of Western academic programs as well as services. Brothers suggested labeling the fee as a Budget Maintenance Fee for the sake of clarity.

SGA President Alison Norris said that since they don’t have all the information available, these questions can’t be answered, but they are still listening to the students.

“Before we can come up with a decision, there’s still a lot if information we still need,” Norris said. “We can’t really decide on a flat number and say, ‘put it toward this’ without knowing what the university needs.”

Norris, along with Student Governor Peter Gregory, will be attending the Budget Advisory Council meeting where more information on Western’s 2013 budget will be made available.

“When you give out information like that, they don’t want panic,” Norris said. “I mean, maybe if there’s jobs being cut…I’m not for sure what decisions they will be making they just have to be very careful how they do that.”

Gary Weidemann, a proponent of a student body vote on the fee, felt that the topic of who will be voting on the fee was not broached.

“It seemed like it turned around into a ‘maybe there won’t be student fees after all,’” Weidemann said.

Mel Klinkner, vice president for financial planning and administration, said that they aren’t trying to pressure SGA into passing a fee.
“We’ve tried to be very open and honest on where [the budget] is,” Klinkner said. We’re just laying out the case.”

With cuts from the state, Western faces a $1.9 million shortfall, not including an increase in costs.

“If the students decide to cover that shortfall then there isn’t a cut,” Klinkner said, “If they don’t approve it then I can’t tell you today where those cuts are going to be.”

Klinkner said that he doesn’t want to anticipate how students will react when voting on a new fee. He does hope that they realize that Western has already made significant cuts in the past few years. Even with a new fee to make up for the shortfall, Klinkner said that salaries would remain frozen.

“I would like to think they would understand,” Klinkner said. “If they don’t understand then they won’t vote for it. I get that.”

Weidemann said that if Senate votes on a fee exclusively, then it would confirm for students that SGA just works for the administration’s will and is not representative of the students.

Norris assures that SGA is always working with administration but is still the voice for the students, especially with a proposed student fee.

“If we were working for administration then we would have already passed it in Senate, we wouldn’t be holding these meetings asking students what they think, we wouldn’t be asking what a potential budget with be with cuts,” Norris said. “We’re trying to find the information that we can so we can make the best decision for students.”

President of WAC Lauren Dillon said she is excited for the concert.

Country star Sara Evans will headline this year's WAC spring Concert.

“The really cool thing is she is actually from Boonville, Mo. The opening band is also from Missouri. We have two people from here in the state,” Dillon said.

WAC is hosting the event, and every Missouri Western student can pick up their free ticket from the Center for Student Engagement in Blum 207. Western students need to bring their Western ID to get their ticket. Anyone who isn’t a student at Western can purchase a ticket online through Ticketmaster.

Director of Student Life and Leadership Isaiah Collier wanted the students to know that everyone must have their ID to be admitted to the concert. In previous years, this wasn’t the case.

“I am excited about it; I think that she will be a great pole from our student body population” Collier said.

For this concert, buses are being offered free of charge to take students downtown to the St. Joseph Civic Arena. Buses will leave from campus every 15 minutes starting at 6:30pm and ending at 7:45 p.m.

“It was kind of silly to have it there when it was for the students, but not every student could go because they don’t have a means to get downtown. Busing students would help bring a bigger audience,” Sebastian Smith, WAC director of entertainment, said.

Doors open at 7 p.m., and the concert starts at 8 p.m. Even thought the concert will take place off campus, it is an alcohol-free event.

Local band “Shooting Blanks” will open the concert.

While addressing a forum of students, staff and faculty, Vartabedian delivered information on Western’s cuts from state appropriations. To make up some of the lost revenue, Vartabedian said that he hoped student leaders will vote on a fee soon.

Student-implemented fees, something that many institutions in Missouri are already using, are a source of revenue that Vartabedian feels will benefit the students more than an increase in tuition.

“I would much rather our students understand the circumstances and vote in student approved fees which get in under the radar and not suffer the consequences of raising tuition,” Vartabedian said.

Western’s budget cut has been reduced from 12.5 percent to 7.8 percent.The new cut translates to $1.9 million. In addition to $1.5 million in ‘unfunded mandatories,’ Western faces a budget shortfall of $3.4 million. An increase in tuition, which is restricted by Senate Bill 389, would yield only $725,000 in new revenue.

“We’re at least moving in the right direction,” Vartabedian said. This budget isn’t final, and still must be approved by the state legislature.

Years of diminishing state appropriations have forced Western to cut 30 percent from the operating budget, cut scholarships, freeze salaries since 2009, increase class sizes, increase the use of adjunct faculty, postpone routine maintenance and repair and reduce custodial services among other cuts.

“What I tell legislators and other people, ‘If we were crying wolf, wouldn’t we certainly had given ourselves at least a symbolic raise in the last three—going on four—years?’” Vartabedian said.

A student-implemented fee would mean that students would be able to designate what the money goes toward. Student Government Association President Alison Norris said that she wants to inform and listen to the students before bringing the fee to a vote.

“We’re not just going to bring it to Senate and say, ‘let’s vote on it,’” Norris said. “Before we would ever do that we would we would have forums, pass out pamphelpets and find out what the students want.”

Norris said that the vote could go to either student Senate or to the whole student body along with the spring elections. Students could also have a voice in how the money gets used.

Senator Mary-Beth Rosenauer thinks that it would be more fair to have a student vote, but only if the there was a large student turnout.

“In an ideal world, it should be a student vote,” Rosenauer said. “Because as a whole it is affecting the students. Now the problem comes that it’s not an ideal world, and are the students going to vote on such a matter.”

Director of Finance Taylor Kram supports a vote from the Senate only because she believes that is the role that the senators were elected for.

“I feel like the senators were voted and made a senate to be the voice of the student body.” Kram said. “I feel like they are well-educated and understand what the student body wants and needs, but when is comes down to it, that’s who votes.”

Kram compared the student Senate to the Electoral College in the U.S. presidential general election, in the fact that the students vote on the senators to represent them.

“Sometimes students tend to see things very one-sided,” Kram said. “Students are going to look at the picture and say, ‘well, I don’t want to pay more money.’”

Travis Hart, vice chair of the governmental relations and campus communications committee, also believes that the vote should remain within the Senate. He also compared the student Senate to a national governing organization, the U.S. Congress.

“The United States Congress, they don’t go to they don’t go to the citizens for a tax increase,” Hart said. “I think that student senators should get the opinions of the students.”

Hart believes the Senate can make the best decision after listening to the students. He also attributed the need for a Senate vote to previous low voter turnout.

“Senators have the student’s best interest at heart, and we need to make the right decision for everyone for the whole student body not to let the people—how many people vote out of 200—decide for the fee.”

SGA President Alison Norris is fully aware of the University’s recent budget cuts. Her acknowledgment of the fact may be the reason she seemed to be very dedicated in her duty to help students out on campus as much as possible.

“I think my motto and my goal is for us to improve things that affect students on an everyday basis, instead of maybe doing programs and things like that that maybe don’t affect students as much,” Norris said.

Norris focused on this goal when she went through the process of filling the four vacant positions that were open on the SGA Council. Lauren Dillon, who filled the position of WAC Vice President, joined WAC because she wanted to be a part of the major event planning that takes place on campus.

According to Dillon, it is important for her to host the spring concert. She and other WAC leaders plan on making the event one of the biggest, sold-out occasions that the university has ever held.

Although a performer has not been named yet, it is important that the concert has the biggest student turn out as possible.

“We haven’t announced anybody yet, but I will like to see that we have the biggest, well-attended concert as far as ticket sales and students coming,” Dillon said.

In her recently-filled position as WAC vice president, Dillon expects to always have something for students to get involved in. She wishes to have an event for students every week to attend so students can have something to do on campus. Dillon is a public relations major and hopes that the position as WAC vice president gives her good experience for her major later on in life.

“I’m gaining great career experience from doing this,” Dillon said. “I hope it will definitely look good on my resume.”

In addition to improving student programs, events and activities, SGA also plans to enhance campus communication. Brittney Edwards filled the Director of Communication position. One of the main things that is expected from Edwards is to spread the news around campus about the events that SGA is hosting.

“Their expectation of me is to just get the word out and to inform students and the community about upcoming events and things that we are doing with WAC and SGA,” Dillon said.

Edwards’ expectations are to have a good year with SGA and to accomplish the goals that will make SGA and WAC run smoothly. She believes that the position that she holds fits her perfectly.

“I really wanted to get involved with SGA because it is working with students, as well as executive members and other faculty members,” Edwards said. “If I want to get involved in this school, I think that this is the most important organization to get involved with for sure.”

The last two positions that were filled weere the Director of Finance and the WAC Vice Chair. Taylor Kram is taking over for finance and Aleyna Asher is the new vice chair for WAC. Alison Norris feels that everyone has adapted quickly and is ready to get started.

“The senators are really happy with the work that they are doing so far,” Norris said. “So you could say they kind of fit in right with their job, and their doing good work.

 According to former Senator Nick Brewer his reason for leaving was school-related, not the lack of confidence in the Senate.

“Partially, one reason I left the Senate was my schedule, and I wouldn’t be able to make most of the meetings,” Brewer said.

Other reasons for Senator’s leaving were not due to a lack of confidence in the senate, but rather for their own benefit.

According to SGA President Alison Norris, only 2 students left the senate who were studying abroad, and those graduating. As stated by Norris she believes it’s time to recruit new Senators.

“We are going to run ads, and asking the current Senators to spread word to others,” Norris said. “The Student Senate has a retreat coming up, and we will hopefully see a few people come out with interest in becoming a Senator.”

The membership rate at the moment for the Student Senate stands at 16, according to SGA Vice President Jacob Scott.

“We just need two-third vote to pass legislations, which we have been able to do.”

Although it’s a positive sign that the Senate is able to pass legislation, having a few new members wouldn’t hurt.

“We are going to recruit, even if we don’t have a full Senate, and we are still able to pass legislation for the Spring Semester,” Norris said.

However, as stated on the Student Governments website a full senate has 20 Senators, but that isn’t stopping the current one in place.

“With the 10 Senators that we have, we only need 6 at the Senate meetings to conduct our business,” Norris said.

According to current Student Senator Brian Shewell, he will wait to see what the plan for gaining membership will be at the first meeting when they return from Winter break.

“By the first meeting we should have an idea on how we plan to get students engaged, and want to participate in the Student Senate,” Shewell said. “I will be spreading word to other students, and let them know how they can bring their own ideas fourth.”

It seems that SGA executives are already getting to work to find ways to get people involved in the student senate. “Our plan is to recruit two men and two women as Senators,” Scott said. “If students are serious about becoming a Senator, then the 3-day retreat would be the best way to gain instant access to the Senate. If students attend the 2 night, 3 day retreat that would count for 3 meetings.”

According to Senate membership requirements, a student must attend 3 meetings to become a senator.

According to Norris, the decline in membership has been an issue the last couple years. “We have a lot of non-traditional students at Western, and students with schedules that don’t fit with our meetings,” Norris said. “We must now show the students how important the Senate is, and how hard we work for the student body.”

According to Jacob Scott, vice president of SGA, the number of senators had risen to 16, but by the end of the semester that number will be down to ten as a result of graduation and senators participating in study abroad programs.

“We’re going to lose a lot of great people,” Scott said. “We’ve got some people studying abroad, a couple of people graduating and one person going into a law enforcement academy, so we’re losing quite a few really good senators, and I really appreciate what they’ve done.

Scott and Alison Norris, president of SGA, said they are ready for the retreat they have planned over the break to refocus on what their collective mission for this administration has been — getting students involved and getting their input.

“I’m ready to get a break,” Norris said. “We need to sit down and get back to our original goal of finding out exactly what the students want from SGA.”

Norris and Scott are extremely proud of the work that has been done this semester, especially concerning the input and legislation coming from the committees.

“We got a lot done for this semester with the improvements for Potter,” Norris said. “We got the recycling program going, so I’m glad about that.”

Scott also felt the committees played a major role in getting much of the legislation brought before the Senate this semester.

“I really think the committees provided a lot of access to students, and a lot of students took advantage of that route [getting involved],” Scott said. “We achieved several proposals, some notable ones be The Living Room for downstairs in Potter Hall for students to hang out.”

Norris said that one project she is working on is a program designed to provide assistance to students needing attire for interviews.

“Many students get a degree, but when it’s time for them to go out on interviews, they can’t afford to purchase any nice clothes,” Norris said. “This program will hopefully be able to help some of those students.”

Scott was also proud of the purchase of the tickets for all of the theatre departments’ performances and wanted to remind everyone that the first 25 in line at the box office every night get a free ticket.

Scott said the main goal for the upcoming semester is not just about retaining students academically, but also keeping them involved and engaged on campus.

“Can we improve the social retention of the campus?” Scott asked. “We need to keep students on campus at night for events.”

The question at this point is: how? According to Scott and Norris both, the answer to this will most likely come from committees and student involvement.

The current Student Governor, Peter Gregory, is responsible for submitting the names of three candidates to Jefferson City, Mo.

“We have extended the deadline, not because we don’t have quality candidates, but we want to give everyone a chance to apply for this position,” Gregory said. “I know that there are students out there who just don’t know about the position yet and would be qualified for the position.”

According to Gregory, this is the only student government position that lasts longer than a year. This may affect student interest in the position.

“If a person is set on graduating within four years, then that would eliminate both juniors and seniors,” Gregory said. “We are looking for freshmen and sophomores that we can draw from, and it will be worth it, and it’s a great experience.”

The fact is that the position takes time, and the person chosen must be ready for the commitment.

“The work varies from week to week,” Gregory said. “The biggest responsibility is to attend the monthly board meetings, the Governor’s Advisory Council meetings, and, at times, work with the Student Government on projects.”

According to SGA President Alison Norris, Gregory should chose someone ready to go to work.

“The qualities of a good Student Governor to me consist of someone who is dedicated, hardworking, and represents the  students,” she said.

Western student Amanda Curtis believes the time commitment plays a role in why students won’t apply.

“Freshmen and sophomores, to me, probably are still getting used to the college,” Curtis said. “I work 30 to 40 hours a week, which makes me not a good candidate, like most students.”

A downside for the Student Governor position is that it has no voting power in SGA. Gregory disagrees with this rule.

“Personally, I believe its okay for the Student Governor to have voting rights: if they were appointed to the position, earned their way to this position, then they are smart enough to have a vote,” said Gregory.

Gregory goes on to state that even though he doesn’t have a vote, he is never overlooked by the Student Government or administration.

“The primary responsibly of the Governor is to represent the students to the administration, and the administration to the students,” Gregory said. “That’s why we have a student governor, so the administration has someone to go to for student opinion.”

According to Norris, the Student Governor gives input and works with SGA on occasion.

“The role of the Governor is similar to mine: we both are on the EBoard, except the position doesn’t offer any sort of scholarship,” Norris said.

Student Keisha Davis believes the position needs more advantages for students to want to apply.

“I think that if there was some kind of leverage or some kind of advantage to being involved, more students would be willing to be involved,” Davis said. “I personally would not be able to apply because of my already busy schedule.”

The process of becoming the next Student Governor is time consuming, according to Gregory.

“All candidates must go to the first interview, and then once they make it past the first section, they are interviewed by Western President, Robert Vartabedian,” Gregory said. He goes on to state that  once the student pass that  process ,then they are interviewed by  Gov. Jay Nixon’s office. Once the candidate is selected, they are asked to come to Jefferson City, Mo., for appointment at a Senate hearing committee.

Gregory is committed to searching for the best candidate for the job.

“We want someone dedicated and willing to serve their university,” Gregory said.

As the 2011-2012 school year unfolds, SGA will be looking to allocate the $26,400 that was initially given to RC. Since the SGA budget doesn’t fund the new Residence Hall Association, the extra funds have been placed in special projects budget.

According to SGA President Alison Norris, the obvious difference between the budgets will be the elimination of RC and the roll over.

“We itemized out some things in the budget when I presented it to the council,” Norris said. “This year we have more roll over than last year and plan to work on a new special project.”

SGA Finance Director Nick McCutcheon explained that the $26,400 that was used to fund RC will be placed specifically in special projects, which are the general funds for the Student Senate, and will be allowed to help fund these specific areas that deal directly with the students.

“We are now able to place this money in areas which will help to fund organizations,” McCutcheon said. “Essentially all of this money went to the legislative branch, more specifically the special projects, which, in a nut shell, is the money the Senate uses to pass bills.”

McCutcheon believes the Senate will create new and better legislation with the extra funding.

Last week the Student Senate passed a bill to fund a new student lounge in Potter Hall. McCutcheon assumes that this money is coming from what would have been the RC funding for this year.

“This is a line item that has always been in the budget,” McCutcheon said. “But with the elimination of Residence Council it significantly increases it and has helped with the funding of this endeavor.”

In the Spring 2011 changes to the SGA Constitution, SGA is required to allocate 20 percent of their budget to Student Affairs. According to the provision, Student Affairs must use this money for student programming that benefits the entire student body.

“I would not say that it hasn’t,” McCutcheon said. “We just want to make sure that it always does.”

In the fiscal year 2011, Student Affairs only spent $20,625.14 out of $103,107.52 from the allocated 20 percent.
Thus far, a comprehensive plan for this year’s use of Student Affairs’ 20 percent has not been presented to Senate. According to the SGA constitution, the use of the previous year’s allocation must be presented at the last Senate meeting of the Spring semester. In the Fall, the vice president of student affairs (currently Esther Peralez) or her designee is required to present how that year’s money will be used.

“While the official budget has not been presented, there have been numerous conversations about what SGA wants from Student Affairs,” Peralez said.

Earlier versions of the SGA Constitution did not require that SGA allocate 20 percent of its budget to Student Affairs. While Student Affairs did not previously receive funding directly from SGA, many of its organizations—Center for Multicultural Education, Center of Student Engagement and Student Leadership Development—did receive funding from SGA.

As of Tuesday, the current SGA budget had not been posted online. Last year’s budget can be found on the SGA page on the Missouri Western website.

Norris said the updated budget should be online for the student body to view, and she will continue to work to get this released as soon as possible.

“The current operating budget was approved last spring,” McCutcheon said. “It should already be up, so I am surprised that it isn’t yet.”

Several pieces of legislation were discussed and passed during the meeting including that of a newly recognized student organization, Residence Hall Association, which was presented by Bridget Janssen, president of Residence Hall Association.

The goal of the newly formed organization is to improve the on-campus experience for those living on campus, according to Janssen. Previously, Residence Council was a part of SGA and any money they spent was general budget money and had to benefit the entire student body. This new organization will not have the same restrictions, because they will get their money elsewhere.

“One of my personal goals is to get a bike room for every building, because a lot more students have started riding bikes around campus and we don’t have racks to keep them in,” Janssen said.

Dallas Henry, assistant professor of theatre and cinema, was in attendance requesting funding for “Student Rush,” which provided 25 free tickets to the first students to line up at the box office. This was done last year and Henry said it was extremely successful.

“We have four main-stage productions,” Henry said, “but we would like to top that [free tickets] this year; we want to bring pizza one of those nights. We want to pay for it out our own pockets, to pay for Aramark to bring pizza to the 25 waiting in line on a surprise night.”

Henry said that they are anticipating placing a new 42-inch television above the box office to play movies in the hallway to entertain people while they wait. Henry also assured the members of SGA that if the tickets went unused they would refund the leftover funds.

Henry’s theatrical presentation was well received and SGA allocated the $4,050 requested for purchasing the tickets for every performance. Henry was elated by the support provided by SGA.

“I won the World Series,” Henry said as his proposal passed a Senate vote.

Jacob Scott, SGA vice president, requested non-members to leave as the meeting moved into closed session, as there were three people in the gallery awaiting their opportunity to be added to the Senate.

SGA President Allison Norris talks on the phone while dealing with the day-to-day grind of running an administration.

“Missouri Western shouldn’t be singled out to lose more funding than any other school,” SGA Vice President Jacob Scott said. “Even before the cuts, we receive less per student from the state than any other university in the state.”

After taking office SGA President Alison Norris wanted Western’s disapproval of State cuts to be heard, but she had no idea that the fight was already lost.

“At the time the rally was set, we never dreamed the 8.2 percent budgets were permanent, but later discovered they were,” Norris said.

President Robert Varabedian believes that Gov. Nixon’s search for extra money was aided when he discovered the tuition increase and the extra revenue our University was getting. “The Governor felt that because of Joplin and the need for extra money, he felt he had to get the money from somewhere,” Vartabedian said.

Norris and SGA continue to urge students and community leaders to sign the petition online voicing their concerns with Gov. Nixon’s cuts toward their University.

Norris said that the petition is more “symbolic” at this time, and she went on to say that the SGA petition has over 1,000 signatures from students to community leaders.

The petition is making noise around the St. Joseph community, but has the state of Missouri heard the cries of our students?

“We don’t plan on handing the petition off to anyone,” Norris said. “We just want to show that students are upset with the budget cuts, and we plan to take action.”

Student leaders and Director of External Relations Beth Wheeler plan to make a visit to Jefferson City on September 13. Their goal is to meet with Governor Nixon’s right hand man for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Mike Neitzel. SGA hopes to gain more information about this cut.

“Now that school is in session, we will probably have some type of forum once we meet with Dr. Neitzel, and have received more information on where this budget cut of 8.2 percent will go,” Norris said.

It is the worry of the students, as well as that of faculty and administrators, where these cuts may be forced to take place. When looking at what budget cuts may affect, we may be looking at a whole list of adverse circumstances.

“With the budget cut it could at some point hurt student organizations on campus,” Norris said.

If professors who advise organizations on campus lose their jobs, then who would be left to advise? Western could see organizations disappear, which is one of the main forms of entertainment and involvement for students. The fact is, Missouri Western raised their tuition for the school year, but is still below most universities regarding out-of-pocket costs.

It seems that Missouri Western took the direct hit. So the fight to gain the budget back continues, with SGA and the St. Joseph community behind the school’s effort. It has been expressed many times: “You can’t keep a Griffon down.” Scott said.

After negotiations over an increase in tuition, the state has lowered the amount of funding it gives Missouri Western by 8.2 percent, the highest cut out of all the Missouri universities. While other universities were cut 7 percent, Western and the University of Missouri system saw higher cuts because of an increase in their tuition.

According to Vartabedian, Governor Nixon wanted Western to raise tuition by only a total of 5.5 percent. While Western’s increase this year was 5.5 percent, students will also have to pay an additional 2.98 percent from an increase last year. That increase went on the books but was never collected.

“I was very honest from the get-go that that would be very difficult given our funding circumstances,” Vartabedian said.

Currently, Western receives the lowest state appropriations per student, about $4,300. Harris-Stowe, Lincoln and Truman Universities, along with the University of Missouri schools, receive roughly $7,000 per student in state appropriations.

While Vartabedian doesn’t want to cut funding from other schools and give it to Western, he believes that the current system is flawed.

“The two things we need to deal with this is the repeal of Senate Bill 389 which forces us to jump through a lot of hoops to get a tuition increase with no guarantees,” Vartabedian said. “The other thing would be trying to get the legislature to do something with our appropriation.”

Vartabedian believes that a system that ties a university’s enrollment to their appropriations would be fair for all of Missouri’s universities.

As far as tuition, this year’s increase including required fees still makes Western the third cheapest in the state. The two schools with lower tuition than Western are Missouri Southern and Harris-Stowe.

Last year, Missouri Western’s student senate voted unanimously for an increase in tuition, a sign to Vartabeidan that students want a quality education.

“A Harris-Stowe for example can abide by the Governor’s wishes and not ask for a significant tuition increase,” Vartabedian said. “Our financial circumstances are that with all these increasing costs and cuts from the state and so forth that for us to sustain a quality education we need to ask what the student will tolerate, and they seem to be willing to tolerate a certain level.”

The Student Government Association also held a rally over the summer to vocalize their displeasure with the state’s cuts. Several days after the 8.2 percent cut was announced, Western’s student leaders gathered in Blum Union to rally against the cut. The “You Can’t Keep a Griffon Down” campaign aims to alert community leaders and state representatives that Western students want more funding for a quality education.

A symbolic petition has also been started online. Community members, students, staff and faculty can sign to show their support for more state funding for Western.

SGA president Alison Norris said that the “You Can’t Keep a Griffon Down” was originally a slogan started at the rally over the summer but has transformed into a campaign.

“We feel that students deserve the highest education possible at Missouri Western,” Norris said. “We deserve the same amount of state funding as any other student.”

Roughly 150 students and four state representatives attended the rally that was held over the summer.

“After the rally, several members of SGA wrote letters to the governor to show how we felt about the situation,” Norris said. “We thought the 8.2% wasn’t permanent, but we just found out that it was.”

Norris and other key members of SGA plan to meet with the governor in September to persuade him to rework the state’s formula for funding universities.

Currently, Western is looking at other possibilities of revenues other than tuition and state funding. One idea that Western administration is currently talking about is leasing the large amount of farm land that Western has.

“It will help out a little bit, but not substantially,” Dr. Vartabedian said.
While the leasing will only bring in $50,000 to $100,000 in revenue, that translate to nearly one full-time professor position.

Dean of Graduate Studies Brian Cronk is also making efforts to bring in more money to Western’s budget via grants. A new initiative aims to give professors time to apply for grants for research that students can participate in to further their education outside the classroom.

“Part of what universities do is look for grants,” Cronk said. “Now there may be more pressure on us because of the budget cuts, but we’d still be doing it but maybe not emphasizing them quite as much. But we’re looking for anything and everything we can do.”

While Cronk said that there are larger grants in Science and technology, grants for the humanities subjects do exist.
“We’ve focused on the spending side,” Cronk said. “Now we need to focus on the revenue side.”

“Noah was a passionate senator,” Norris said. “He showed that he would be dedicated to the position.” Green originally applied for the student relations position, but Norris felt he was better qualified for communications and convinced him to take the position.

Vice President for Student Affairs, Esther Peralez reported to the SGA the expenses of her budget which totals 20 percent of the total SGA budget. These monies are set aside each year to operate the office of student affairs. Each year the Vice President for Student Affairs is committed to bring a report showing how the money has been spent. Not all of last year’s money has been spent but Peralez has pledged that it will go for the causes that assist students most.

The SGA members voted to approve the purchase of paint for Downs Drive. This summer it will begin to show a little more school spirit with the addition of paw prints and the school mascot painted on its surface. “We approved it because it will show school spirit and get students excited,” Norris said.

Norris’ resolution requiring campus organizations to attend the presidential leadership council’s monthly meetings failed in a seven-to-three vote after some of the senators left the meeting to meet other obligations. “We are going to bring it back up after some more research and planning,” Norris said. “I still feel that organizations need instructions about what we expect before we finance their plans. The resolution is designed to keep organizations more active and involved in the process.”

“I was very surprised that the notice of action failed,” Vice President of Financial Planning, Nick McCutcheon said. He explained that the proposed legislation required that one designated member from each club and organization attend a monthly president’s leadership council meeting. If a club or organization failed to meet the requirement their status as a recognized organization could have been suspended or revoked. “All that means is that that they would not have been eligible for SGA funding or other resources we provide,” McCutcheon said.

SGA provides clubs and organizations with up to $7,500 each per year. “I don’t think it was too much to ask to require one member from each to attend not more than nine meetings a year in return for that,” McCutcheon said.

Part of the training given to students at the president’s leadership council is for Orgsync a software program students paid for to assist organizations in working together.  “We are trying to show the importance of leadership,” SGA Vice President Jacob Scott said. “I’m not upset that it didn’t pass and I’m looking forward to making it clearer and better understood throughout SGA so I will pass next time. Students should be excited about going to the leadership council it is an honor to be chosen to represent your organization and get this training.”

After a few speeches and introductions of senate members Scott presented a power point laying out his vision of the new session. It stated some of his views and proposed changes that will be covered in future senate meetings and how those meetings will proceed. The presentation concluded with an instruction to the senate to pass the budget.  

“It’s important to pass the budget now to get programs funded and going today,” Scott said. But, the budget wasn’t passed without some questions from the senate floor.   The money for the SGA budget comes directly from student fees. Fulltime students pay $50 per semester and part time students pay $30 each semester. Senators asked about the fourth largest budget item, which is the $50,000 budget allocation for the administrative assistant position. Vice President Scott began to answer questions and justify the expense and the need for the position.

He explained that the administrative assistance position is responsible for senate travel arrangements and SGA project coordination. SGA Advisor and Vice President for Student Affairs Ester Peralez said, “The position keeps the office open when none of the executive officers are in the office.”  Norris added that the administrative position also checks the senator’s office hours and records them to increase accountability of senators and helps SGA keep an open door policy. “She is also the best resource for all senators with any question concerning Missouri Western and SGA policies,” Scott said.

The senators also questioned the amount of money allocated for organizations on campus and the usual budget problem of more money requested than allocated most semesters. The finance oversight committee regulates these funds and the newly appointed Director of Finance Nick McCutcheon will chair that position. To help keep the fund available for the entire budget period he plans to spend less with each request.

“People may not like the message going in (to this session) but, we will have more money at the end,” McCutcheon said.  Vice President Scott expressed his feelings that the requirements to get money should be more stringent. “We need to make sure that groups on campus are financing their own projects and have a financial plan that we can support so we aren’t just funding trips for them,” Scott said.

As the first steps in her new presidency Norris appointed McCutcheon as the Director of Finance and Jordan Carney aswhich now includes the duties formally held by the Election Commissioner. The Election Commissioner position has not been budgeted since fiscal year 2010.

“I haven’t appointed the director of communication position yet,” Norris said. “I really want someone with a passion for the position. I don’t want the position just filled, I want it done well.” She is considering applicants still and had contacted some for a second interview. “I may select one of them or wait for new applicants,” Norris said.

Last Monday night was the last meeting of the 38^th session of SGA senate. History will record the members of the 38^th session as the first to put the campus-wide smoking ban on a ballot to get student’s input. Key members of the group going out of power and coming in agree that the issue is dead.

“I’m not going to do anything with the smoking ban,” SGA President-elect Alison Norris said. “I feel we already have the student’s answer.” She does support enforcing the present rules imposed on those who smoke on campus in order to address non-smoker’s complaints. The goal of SGA now seems to be to facilitate cooperation between those who smoke and those that do not want to be around the second hand smoke by enforcing the current rules.

Those rules include smoke free zones encompassing a 30-foot radius of all doorways and building ventilation intake vents. Smoking students readily point out that one of the problems with this policy is the location of the outdoor ashtrays. Most are located within the 30-foot boundary. Using the ashtrays places smokers within the 30-foot boundary and create complaints from non-smoking students who need to walk through those doorways.

On the other hand, the areas close to doorways are the ones that are littered with cigarette butts. Campus maintenance employees have placed ashtrays and butt cans next to the doorways to save money on labor to pick up the mess left by inconsiderate smokers. SGA President, Dillon Harp agrees that the future is better served with enforcement of current regulations concerning smoking on campus.

“We need better signage on campus explaining the rules and helping smokers understand where the areas are that permit smoking,” Harp said. “We have heard the student’s voice.” He also agreed with some of the issues mentioned in recent opinion articles printed in The Griffon News. He stated that he knows of no efforts to bring the issue back to the ballot box.

The SGA Director of Student Relations, Kelsey Corzine has a slightly different opinion. “I think the smoking ban would have been a good policy for Western’s students, but I’m glad the student’s voices were heard,” Corzine said. She feels that complaints will subside if smokers would just follow the rules.

But those rules don’t address the littering problem of those unsightly butts around campus at nearly every doorway. The litter issue alone could encourage administration to ban smoking on campus. Maintaining the appearance of campus grounds under the current budget constraints could force the issue. It may come down to a mandatory smoking ban if smokers don’t clean up their act.

Current SGA President Dillon Harp said that the most significant change to the constitution is the addition of a Student Bill of Rights.

“Essentially what the Bill of Rights is going to do is hopefully illustrate to the students that student government will be there to help with any problems they might have here on campus, be it in the academic realm or if they are having problems with their meal plans,” Harp said. “If they feel their services are being unjustly done to them, they can come to us.”

The Student Bill of Right lists 10 rights that Harp hopes student’s takes into consideration.

SGA President-Elect Alison Norris believes that the Student Bill of Rights is a good way for students to see what SGA stands for and what rights the students have.

“It’s good to have that on there because they know that this is what we represent and how we represent them,” Norris said.

Norris also said that during her term, SGA will have a grievance form for students to fill out if they feel any of these rights are being violated.

“Whether or not it can be changed or not, we can go back to the student and say, ‘this is why this is like this,’ or ‘this is how we can change it,’” Norris said.

Another change made to the constitution is the separation of Residence Council from SGA. Residence Council will now be a separate organization called Residence Hall Association. On April 18 , RHA will have to seek recognition from SGA as a current student organization. This also means SGA will no longer be funding RC or the new RHA.

Acting Director of Residential Life Sean O’Reilly said RHA will receive its funding from students living in the halls.

“Based upon the number of students who live in the hall, part of everybody’s housing cost will be provided for RA programming, hall improvements and now RHA funding,” O’Reilly said.

Currently RC receives $31,408 from SGA, most of which goes towards activity funding. Residence Hall Director Marqita Jones, who will advise RHA along with RHD Dany Thompson, said that RHA will take on a governance body more than it has before.

“Any polices [in the residence halls] that students disagree with, they can get together and write a proposal and give it to RHA and try and get some of those polices changed,” Jones said.

O’Reilly also added that RHA will give residential life more opportunities to foster leadership and give students more opportunities to become leaders.

As for SGA’s previously appropriated funds for RC, Norris and Executive Vice President-Elect Jacob Scott are currently looking into special projects that the money might be used for.

“We’re considering the prospect of University’s President Dr. Vartabedian to put forth a vision to the student government of possibly helping fund the construction of an amphitheater,” Scott said.

Scott said that an amphitheater would help community outreach as well as strengthening the community on campus.
Norris said that as president, she would like to find out what the students want the money to be used for before deciding on what the extra funds will go towards.

The first day of Norris’s administration, she plans to address the 2011-2012 budget at the April 18 meeting. Norris said that all students are invited to give their input.

“I’d love for lots of feedback,” Norris said. “I think we’ve come up with a good plan for the budget but different perspectives on it are always great.”

Harp believes that with these recent changes to the constitution have solved a lot of issues with “one final swing of the bat.”

Norris said that all the changes made were well though out and that it will be a few years before SGA proposes changes again, but there’s no guarantee.

“It all depends on who is in the position,” Norris said. “There’s a big possibility that it might not be changed for a while, but you know our track record. So, we’ll see.”

The new constitution, which was discussed in closed session during the Feb. 28 senate meeting, passed on a vote of 11-1. SGA refused to release a copy of the revised constitution by press time March 2. However, multiple sources have confirmed that the new constitution does not include Residence Council as a branch of SGA, but could not provide details of what will be done with their current $25,000-$30,000 budget.

SGA President Dillon Harp declined to comment on the details of the revised constitution until it was officially released.
Harp said that Senate and members of the executive board agreed to hold the discussion on the constitution in closed session.

“It was involving personnel matters, so they felt it was the best move,” Harp said.

Parliamentarian Jacob Scott said that students could have spoken about changes to the constitution before the meeting became a closed session. Scott also said that the Senators were acting as the voice of the students during the closed session.

“It says specifically in our constitution that we are the association and the association is defined as the students of Missouri Western,” Scott said.

Senator Nick McCutcheon, the single dissenting vote, believes that SGA hurried through the process of revising the constitution, but believes that closed session was necessary to discuss the specific changes to the constitution.

“I felt it was a bit rushed,” McCutcheon said. “Revisions were suggested a long time ago but I know for a fact that going into the meeting that not every Senator had looked at the most revised copy and I know for a fact that some senators probably voting without fully understanding some of the revisions or why they were made or what they really meant.”

McCutcheon also disagrees with certain sections of the revised constitution. In particular, McCutcheon feels that the 20 percent allocation to Student Affairs is taking the money out of SGA’s hands.

“To kind of use an analogy I see it as a parent telling their child ‘you earn a $100 allowance, I’m going to give you $80 and keep $20. Maybe I’ll spend it to help you with things like groceries or doctor’s visits,’” McCutcheon said, “the money will be used to benefit you, but I’m not going to allow you to choose how to spend that $20.”

McCutcheon said that he hopes students read the constitution carefully before voting on it.

“If students vote yes on that constitution then that tells me that they don’t mind the university using students’ money to fund things that should be funded through the university budget,” McCutcheon said. “If the constitution is approved then I’ll quit fighting it, but I’m positive there are other people out there feel the same way I do about it, maybe they just don’t understand it.”

This topic has been a sore spot for many students, particularly smokers, and now everyone will have the opportunity to read the new policy and determine whether or not to adopt it.

It is important to note before going any further that this cannot pass by a simple majority, two/thirds of those voting must be in favor to pass it. Once passed by the students, the policy will go before faculty and administration for approval–if approved the policy would go into effect Aug. 1, 2012.

Dillon Harp, SGA president, is excited about the tobacco policy and its placement on the ballot for a student vote.

“What I hope students get out of the process, is they get to vote,” Harp said. “This has been a topic that has been around campus for the last couple of years and now is the opportunity, they get a chance to say yes, we want to go tobacco free or no, we want to keep the status quo.”

Student Governor Peter Gregory said that the policy is being created to promote a safe and healthy environment here at Missouri Western.

The policy also includes electronic cigarettes, and Gregory gave his reason on why the decision was made to include a tobacco-less product within the policy.

“Electronic cigarettes have the same addictive characteristics as traditional cigarettes,” Gregory said.
The enforcement within the document is left vague as it states that employees and students are encouraged to communicate this policy.

The policy alludes to the student code of conduct, which if handled as Gregory said, is intended to be in line with the current alcohol policy and could eventually spell expulsion for repeat offenders.

Another major issue at hand with this policy is the enforcement for faculty and staff. Western obviously has a student handbook to guide us in disciplinary issues for students, but the same is not available for tenured contract employees of the university, at least not for student perusal.

Many students like Kirk Gries, a senior studying sociology, feel that the logical changes for the policy would be to add smoking shelters.
“If they want me away from the buildings, give me a shelter to get out of the rain,” Gries said.

Gries was strongly opposed to the idea of the university implementing a policy banning tobacco and related products. Like Gries, many students also question whether this would include smoking inside their personal vehicles while on campus.

“I can’t smoke in restaurants, I just about can’t smoke in any bars, and now the college is trying to tell me I can’t smoke outside while I’m at school,” Gries said. “I’m going out to have a smoke.”

Student Senator Nick McCutcheon said that his personal views were irrelevant because the policy was going to be voted on by the students. McCutcheon did say that one of the best aspects of the policy was the cessation, which would help those seeking to quit the help they need.

“I’m interested to see if the students understand the scope of this and how big it is,” McCutcheon said. “I’m also interested to see if they’re going to fight because I know there are a lot of students that have very strong opinions on this.

The SGA discussed in their weekly meeting whether the decision in granting the Fellowship of Christian Athletes $750 for the streamers thrown in Western’s loss to Northwest last Saturday was appropriate.

The SGA was under the assumption that the FCA was to hold the streamers until the end of the game and throw them only if the Griffons won. The streamers were thrown after the Griffons first basket and a technical foul was called.

The SGA expressed their desire to help organizations around campus become involved and start traditions, but this may have been a waste of $750 and an unnecessary technical foul.
Some members of Alpha Sigma Alpha were present at the meeting to appeal the FOC decision to only grant them $1,225 which is $630 short of them being able to send the 31 of its members wishing to attend their district days in Kansas City, Mo. All organizations are allowed a maximum of $2,500 per year for activities, conferences and events. No one from the
FOC was present to object the appeal of ASA.

Steve Wichern, an SGA senator, gave a speech in affirmation to allocate the extra funds to ASA.

“We need to help organizations trying to better themselves,” Wichern said. “Because no one is here to speak on FOC behalf; their silence is compliance.”

The SGA approved the ASA appeal and granted them the additional funds needed.

Nick McCutcheon, SGA senator, is glad the SGA sided with Alpha Sigma Alpha and granted them the additional funds they needed.

“It is the organizations money anyways and if they don’t use it it’s just going to sit there,” McCutcheon said.

In the absence of SGA President Dillon Harp and recently resigned SGA Executive Vice President Robin Ussher, Senator and Parliamentarian Jacob Scott has run the last two SGA meetings.
Scott states that he has enjoyed the experience of being the presiding officer over the SGA meetings and has learned a lot from it.

“The experience of the last two meetings is wonderful and only affirms my confidence in my ability to be a great choice for Vice President,” Scott said.

Focus groups will be formed to provide feedback on the proposed changes before both policies are drafted and placed on the ballot.
“It’s our goal to get student opinion on both of these issues,” SGA Director of Communication Alison Norris said.

Student Governor Peter Gregory has been working with SGA, Senate and Administration to research both issues since earlier in the fall semester. A resolution stating that SGA supported the pursuit of an initiative to make Western tobacco free passed in the Senate Nov 1.

While the resolution passed unanimously, it was not without debate. Some senators felt that SGA should not have stated their stance on the issue without receiving student feedback.

“I felt that we should have had the students develop the policy,” SGA Director of Finance Colin Hoffman said. “It sends the wrong message. It seems like we’ve already decided what we want to do before we put it to a vote of the students.”

Gregory said the student focus groups will help SGA form a policy that meets the opinions of students.

“The purpose of the focus groups is to make sure that the policy reflects the opinions of the students,” Gregory said. “It’s the students developing the policy.”

His plan was to draft a preliminary proposal that he would present to the focus groups for their opinions.

“We expect to see some disagreement between the students, but it’s really about trying to find a happy medium and what’s best for the university and the students in the long run,” Gregory said.

The necessary steps between the beginning of the semester and March could prevent the measures from making it to the ballot, but Gregory said he was almost certain that at least the tobacco free policy would make it.

Gregory acknowledged that one of the biggest obstacles in drafting the proposal was settling on how the policy would be enforced if passed. Gregory also said that enforcement was the primary reason SGA wanted to go for a completely tobacco free policy rather than just smoke free or designated smoking areas.

“It is easier to comply if it is black and white,” Gregory said.

While talks with administration and health center officials were only preliminary, Gregory said the health center fee would likely be $25 for full-time students per semester. The cost was based on the co-pay that students are currently charged per visit to the health center.

“If a student were to use the health center once a semester, they would already get their money back,” Gregory said.

When the fee was initially proposed to the Senate, Gregory said that health center officials felt that they were not able to provide enough services to students with their current budget. The fee, which is charged by some other local universities, would allow for the center to be open more and possibly have additional staff.

“There are still a lot of details to work out,” Gregory said. “A large part of it has to do with changing the system of how they do things now, that’s our biggest obstacle now.”

Bill 35 to allocate $3,000 for the purchase and installation of two new televisions for the Food Court snuck its way onto the Senate meeting agenda Nov. 15 and passed 11-1 with one abstention.

The televisions were slated to replace two sets that were already in the food court. Senator Steve Wichern spoke as the bill’s sponsor and said that the hasty addition was due to the timely matter of the installation. The bill proposed that the televisions could be installed before students return from Winter Break.

“I think we need to get this done as fast as possible,” Wichern said.

Prior to that night’s meeting, bill sponsors were asked to have the proposals in three days before the bill was voted on. Bill 35 was written and presented to the senate without the Executive Board’s knowledge. In particular, before SGA Director of Communication Alison Norris was privy to the bill. Norris has formatted the bills and sent them to Senators and SGA members prior to past meetings.

The agenda was amended to include the bill and approved by the Senate. Though it was approved, the variation from typical procedures left some Executive Board members and Senators dissatisfied with the surprise addition. Senator Jeremy Filbert who voted against the bill said he feared that the late addition could damage the credibility of SGA’s procedures.

“Everything that we have is put in place for a freaking reason,” Filbert said. “If we circumvent that, then how the hell are we supposed to tell somebody else hey, you can’t do that? How are we supposed to govern them if we can’t even get our own shit straight? Shits not going to happen the way it’s supposed to if we start screwing up.”

Filbert had been working with Senator Jacob Scott on a student life act that has been proposed to include the addition of televisions to the Blum Union. Filbert felt that the bill went around the committee that he and Scott had formed and that he may have been more likely to vote for the bill had he known about it prior to the meeting.

“I didn’t know a damn thing about it,” Filbert said. “If they had come to me before and said ‘hey this is what we’re wanting to do,’ maybe I would have been a little more forthcoming with my vote on that one.”

Filbert said that he and Scott had discussed replacing the televisions in the food court, but he felt the addition of televisions to the cafeteria and union was more important.

“It was determined that why waste the money to replace those when the cafeteria doesn’t have any T.V.’s,” Filbert said. “Why are we wasting $3,000 to replace some damn T.V.’s in the food court when there’s nothing in the other two areas?”

SGA President Dillon Harp said that the procedures to add the bill to the agenda were legitimate and within SGA By-Laws, but that SGA expected more notice.

“What we’re trying to emphasize is that we do have deadlines for bills and resolutions and anything that’s going on with the agenda be turned in by Thursday,” Harp said. “We would like to see that precedent maintained.”

The allocated amount was based on purchase and installation costs for a television in the SGA office. Harp said that he felt the T.V.’s in the food court would not total $3,000.

“It isn’t a major expense,” Harp said. “He said $3,000. It’s going to be something that probably costs a third of that.”

The SGA budget presented at the last meeting of the spring could not be voted on since a majority of Senators were not in attendance. However, curiously enough, the lack of a quorum did not prevent the voting in of the Directors of Finance, Communications, and Student Relations in a closed session.

In order to have an approved budget for the fall semester the senate held an electronic vote via e-mail.

Parliamentarian and Student Senator Jacob Scott said that voting electronically forced a limited discussion on the budget but that it wasn’t in violation of the SGA constitution.

“As long as it’s not denied, it’s not necessarily allowed I guess but it’s not necessarily denied so I guess it’s kind of in a limbo state where we would have the ability to make a decision,” Scott said.

However, Robert’s Rules of Order, which SGA must follow “as a guide to govern the procedure and proceedings of all meetings,” denies the use e-mail as a way to hold meetings.

SGA President Dillon Harp disagrees with this interpretation of the constitution.

“Nothing in the constitution said that we couldn’t do an electronic vote and that is something that the Board of Governors does regularly,” Harp said. “Me being on the board for the past two years I felt like that as a good tool we could utilize over the summer that way we could get the ball rolling on the budget.”

However, the Board of Governors bylaws include a provision for the electronic meetings while SGA bylaws have no such provision. In addition the Board of Governors ratifies any electronic polls at their next meeting in accordance with the Robert’s Rules of Order website which states, “personal approval of a proposed action obtained from a majority of, or even all, board members separately is not valid board approval, since no meeting was held during which the proposed action could be properly debated. If action is taken by the board on the basis of individual approval, such action must be ratified by the board at its next regular meeting in order to become an official act.”

Nothing in any of the fall 2010 minutes indicates a vote was held to ratify the electronic budget vote.

The email sent to Senators calling the electronic meeting, the minutes of the meeting and the vote totals have not been posted to the SGA website and had not been sent to The Griffon News by press time.

SGA Vice President Robin Ussher could not be reached for comment.

As of Oct. 27 2010, the SGA budget was made available on their website. It can be found here

Director of Athletics Dave Williams explained the history of the fee that was approved by a student vote in the spring of 2006. Williams also described each line item of the budget that included capital facility improvements, game day promotions, admissions, concessions and other items related to fan experiences at games. A $460,000 payment toward a $5.5 million bond to pay for capital improvements occupied the biggest slice of the budget.

“A bond is just like the mortgage on a house,” Williams said. “For the next 20 years, that amount of the Max Experience money is committed towards those capital projects.”

The capital projects Williams spoke of were the addition of new athletic facilities and improvements to standing structures. Some requested additions included a concession stand, bleachers and rest rooms on the visitor’s side of Spratt Stadium. Chiefs’ officials told Williams that the bond and student commitment made training camp, which drew over 60,000 people to Western, possible.

Original proposals were drawn to use $2 million from the bond to pay just for the Spratt improvements and the construction of an on campus baseball stadium. With the Chiefs picking up part of the tab, Western gained a $3 million Spring Sports Complex and the Spratt improvements with only $1.2 million coming from the bond.

“We originally weren’t going to build a softball field,” Williams said. “We were able to keep the same student commitment and get everything that we have now.”

SGA has pushed to create transparency of student fees and members said they had heard varying reports from students on the fee, prompting the invitation to athletic officials.

“There is no sense in paying student fees if you don’t know where that money is going,” SGA President Dillon Harp said. “SGA, in general, should be the representatives of the students and go out and make sure that the student fees that each student pays go to the best possible use.”

SGA members voiced some student questions and concerns including the quality of concession items offered through Max. Williams said that discussions had already begun with Aramark to address that issue, but that there were some logistical concerns slowing the process.

Discussions between the two sides reached the idea to create a student advisory board for the Max fee that could help to promote the Max fee to students as well as educating them on what it provides.

Assistant Athletic Director Brett Esely agreed with Senators that educating the student body and promoting Max benefits had been a challenge and that a student board may go a long way to help promote the game day atmosphere.

“Maybe all that group does is talk about ideas, talk about what’s out there among the student body, are they getting our message, do they know what’s going on over here?” Esely said. “The pride in our events begins and ends with students because it’s their university,”

While students requested facility upgrades and improved game day experiences, Williams said he understood that some students do not attend athletic events and may not see the direct benefit of improved facilities.

“It’s the value to the entire university through things like the indoor field and things like the brand new spring sports complex,” Williams said. “The value of having them on this campus is that it increases the overall perception of Missouri Western. As they attract more students, they then increase the budget of the overall university so that everybody can have more things.”

The committee will be co-chaired by Athletic Director Dave Williams and Director of Athletic Facilities Mike Halloran, but President Robert Vartabedian is still in the process of designating committee assignments.

“There’s a lot to talk about,” Williams said. “First of all, it’s a very unique building. It’s unlike any other on campus.”

Unique not only to Missouri Western’s campus, says Halloran, but for any school of Western’s size in the state of Missouri. The university boasts the only indoor sports facility of its kind, which is what drew the Chiefs training camp there last summer.

“Literally a day after we were handed over the building the Chief’s camp started,” Williams said, “So for about 45 days we were 100 percent committed to running the Chiefs.”

After training camp ended, the fall semester started and left the university without the time to discuss guidelines for use of the facility. “We’re still trying to work out the details of how this thing works,” Williams said.

Currently the building is not available for open use by students, meaning students can’t go and use the facility without being a part of a university organization. The committee plans on discussing this issue, and designating days that the building will be open to student use. Halloran says that Tuesday and Thursday afternoons will most likely be designated as these “open-rec” times.

Halloran said that no one benefits from the building sitting empty, and if there is no group scheduled then he would prefer to have students using the practice field and indoor track.

“If it’s available and there’s nobody using, we want them to use it,” Halloran said.

Before that happens though, the committee needs to decide the rules for the students, along with who is going to handle security during these times, funding, insurance, and other issues.

Although the facility is not currently available for open use, it is used by students in other ways including intramural athletics and classrooms that use the building’s auditoriums and viewing rooms. Wonda Berry, campus recreation director, is in charge of intramural athletics and says that Halloran has been very open in allowing an intramural flag football league to use the indoor practice field.

“We’ve had some dates that we’ve had to cancel due to weather outside with thunder and lightning and he’s been really good so far to work with us on those dates,” Berry said.

If the intramural league was unable to use the facility it was because of scheduling conflicts, not out of worries of damage to the facility.“They are very adamant on making sure they take care of the facility, and I don’t blame them in that,” Berry said. She says that enforcing rules and responsible use is key to maintaining the quality of any athletic facility on campus.

Another big issue that the committee will discuss is the rental fee charged to non-university organizations that are using the building. Halloran said the projected operating budget of the indoor sports complex is $400,000-$450,000 per year, and as an auxiliary funded building he is responsible for covering these funds through rental fees. Currently the fee is $1,500 per day, but Halloran says the committee will review this number and make changes if it deems them appropriate.

Vice President of Student Affairs Esther Perález was on hand to clarify details surrounding the retirement of Non-Traditional Student Advisor Ellen Kisker and what, if any, changes would be made to the association and their center.

Perález said Kisker made the decision to retire after being asked to take over the position of Director of Student Life. Perález felt Kisker would be perfect for the position which would have allowed her to remain an advisor for the non-trads in addition to overseeing other student organizations.

In response to questions on the status of the association and center, Perález and Student Governor Peter Gregory referred to an email sent to students last week. The email described efforts to reorganize non-traditional services in an effort to make non-trads a more visibly active part of campus life.

Gregory stated that the association would be placed more directly under Student Affairs and that SGA had a responsibility to the non-trads.

“SGA has a responsibility to understand the situation and to understand how a non-traditional student feels about a particular issue,” Gregory said. “It is very important for that to take place so that the non-traditional students don’t lose the effectiveness of the services that they have been receiving.”

Perález added that the Dean’s Council had confirmed their commitment to the association and steps toward restructuring the center into more of an academic area had already begun. Non-Traditional Student and Student Senator Danny Drope confirmed the process by saying computers had been added to the center to promote studying.

“Instead of having it loud like it has been, it’s more like a study help center now,” Drope said. “We’ve got a separate section just for people to use the computers and study.”

The Senate also voted to move forward discussions on a proposed fee to students for use of the Esry Health Center.

Currently students only pay for services received from the health center but recently health center officials approached SGA about charging all students a flat fee. The proposed fee would be charged much like current SGA, yearbook and MAX Experience fees.

According to Gregory, health center officials feel their current budget is not allowing them to fully meet students’ health needs. The proposed fee would likely significantly increase the budget and possibly provide for the employment of a full-time staff. Currently the center’s staff is available for limited hours Monday through Thursday.

Senators and SGA Officers debated on the fairness of the fee based on student usage. Some members felt it would not be fair to students who have health insurance and do not visit the health center. Others felt that the fee may actually save students that use the center money and that the possibility of improved services may result in more students visiting the center.

SGA members stated that other local universities charge similar fees and had begun the process of researching those fees.
Senator Steven Wichern said he hopes that the senate will base their decisions on the fee on what the student body says instead of personal beliefs.

“I’m going to leave it to the students and hear what they think and base what I vote on what I hear from the students,” Wichern said.

SGA members also briefly discussed the possibility of offering prizes for voting on measures such as the proposed fee. The idea to award students for voting was partially in response to low voter numbers for last year’s technology and recycling program vote.

In light of the decision at our Maryville neighbor to implement a no-smoking policy campus wide on August 1, several faculty and staff members were asked to weigh in on the issue.

Lonnie Johnson, director of facilities, thinks that the students will have to push this issue—if it’s going to happen in the near future.

“I think it’s a good thing [Northwest going smoke-free],” Johnson said. “When I got to Western in 1990, taking us to a smoke-free building campus was one of the first things I was involved in, and it’s been that way ever since.”

Johnson said that this issue [smoke-free campus] has come up several times since that occurred, and he believes that the students will have initiate a move to a smoke-free campus to make it happen.

Grpahic | Andy Inman

Johnson said that the smoking shelters have been discussed in the past, but he feels it’s a better policy to totally eliminate it and just have and end date set.

“I’m an ex-smoker and I always think cold turkey is the best way to go,” Johnson said.

Evan Noynaert, assistant professor of computer science, chaired an Adhoc committee for the faculty senate in 2008 and they discussed the smoking policy then. At the time they looked at the possibility of shelters at an approximate cost of $10,000 per shelter.

“I really don’t think that the shelters are necessary, the idea is that we want to discourage smoking not facilitate it,” Noynaert said.

Noynaert said that the majority of the committee did not want to go to the expense of the shelters, with the likelihood of Western going completely smoke-free in the future.

SGA President Dillon Harp feels “an issue of this magnitude” should come from the students, so that the policy reflects the wishes of the students.

“If student input on this is strong enough, there is no reason why this wouldn’t deserve a place on the ballot come spring time,” Harp said.

Harp feels that designated areas on campus would help to ease the transition to a totally smoke-free campus. Harp feels that shelters, similar to the one near the sand-volley ball court could be built as smoking shelters in the most populated areas.

“With the budget that student government has I think that is an issue that we can address,” Harp said.

Harp feels that if done properly SGA could facilitate this and said that in the future these shelters could be used for other purposes.

Harp thinks this will be something the state will eventually will force colleges and universities to implement as the push to be healthier increases.

“If a petition with 10% of the students signatures on it came forward, I would say that would be enough to put it on a ballot and take it to a vote,” Harp said.

The final tally for the vote was 299 to 309 for a total of 608 votes cast. On the surface, this looks like the fee was a close vote; however, according to Josh Rieken, SGA elections commissioner, a two-thirds majority was necessary for the fee to pass.

“Basically, we would have needed two yes votes for every no vote, so it really wasn’t close to passing,” Rieken said.

Graphic | Sara Baum

The page was up for about three or four days according to Harp, with the objective of alerting students to issues he and a few other student leaders saw as necessary information.

Harp’s involvement was limited to the Facebook page as he said he had little to do with any of the posters that were hanging on bulletin boards and walls all over campus. “I was made aware of it,” Harp said. “We (the person who made the posters) collaborated a little bit about it but I didn’t have the final say in it.”

Initially, Harp said that he was in favor of the fee, but that was before some of the changes and the removal of clauses protecting the students. The biggest clause removed protected the students from being hit with increases twice. The clause stipulated that if tuition is raised the fee would cease to exist and with its removal, so went Harp’s support.

After much thought and consideration Harp came to the conclusion that it was not in the best interest of the students to tax themselves for things, he feels, the university should be providing through tuition.

“Why should we be taxing ourselves for technology inside the classroom when that’s what tuition should be paying for,” Harp said.

Student forums informing students about issues and providing them with information about the fee were missing, according to Harp, but Rieken said that they decided not to do them for this fee.

“Some people said that we should have held forums, but the thing with those is usually people don’t go to them, so I don’t know how much of a difference it would have made,” Rieken said.

Harp thought otherwise. “Even if they [forums] are poorly attended, you have to at least provide that opportunity for the students,” Harp said. “Saying people aren’t coming isn’t reason to just not get out and educate them about it.”

Jerrod Huber, a senior majoring in English, didn’t vote and said that he basically depended on others not to pass it.

“If I was trying to get people to vote, I would get out and talk to them, get in the crowds where people are talking,” Huber said.

Harp feels strongly that Missouri Western State University should be addressing issues with technology to provide the best education possible. “If it’s [technology] really that bad we can justify it and take care of it the right way[tuition], instead of going through on these fees and taxing our students with all these separate individual fees, that we fee them to death.”

Harp was also worried this would have set a precedent for the students to address all issues on their own such as implementing a fee to replace desks in the classroom and other such issues.

Harp thinks that the university may have to rethink how they allocate money and said one of the biggest expenses is student labor. “I’m not saying I want to get rid of student labor or anything like that, but inside the computer labs—one of the biggest expenses they have is they spend $108,000 each year on student labor inside the computer lab,” Harp said. Harp feels that some if not all of that money could be going to provide for technology in the classrooms.

Joshua Todd, Student Government president feels that a smoking ban is out of the question for the campus mainly because of the residential halls.

“This is where people live. To just say, ‘you’re done’ to smokers on campus is going to cause more problems,” Todd said. “It’s a habit for these people; they’re addicted.”

Judy Grimes, dean of student affairs, holds strong that the issue of what to do about the conflict between smokers and anti-smokers should be dealt with.

“I think it was a great idea for the students to have the discussion and look at the pros and cons because it’s certainly not simple,” Grimes said. “But we know there are some major health issues related to smoking. We would like to have a campus of healthy students, faculty and staff.”

Todd and several SGA senators that attended a focus group last Wednesday, Oct. 5 discussed several ways to make both parties happy in this situation, such as banning smoking 15 feet in front of building doors. Enforcing this ban would be a problem for the university.

“You can’t enforce anything if it doesn’t exist,” Todd said.

The SGA has no authority to make campus policy, but by passing legislation, they can influence administrators to listen. Even if the 15 feet ban passes and becomes policy, SGA senators are worried that campus security would be too busy to enforce such a policy.

Jerrod Huber, a non-traditional student who serves as an SGA senator, led a group of non-traditionals who picked up an excess of over 1,000 cigarette butts outside of Murphy and Eder.

“It’s a problem,” Huber said. “I shouldn’t have to walk through noxious clouds of smoke to get to class at Murphy or Eder.”

Huber suggests that the SGA build roofing over the patios that the university has for smokers. Since the patios are set off on the side of the building, Huber also suggests that the SGA invests in signs to make the position of the smoking areas more clear.

Todd believes that the administrators will listen due to President Robert Vartibedian’s push for campus beautification and the amount of clout that this discussion has around campus.

“There is already enough concern and publicity about the anti-smoking group,” Todd said. “This group is taking initiative and I’m proud of them for doing that.”

 Calloway said that he looked for applicants who were especially focused on students and were engaged with issues on campus. “They also need to have writing capabilities and think on their feet pretty well; I looked for people who stood out in high school,” Calloway said. The chief objective is to make sure the seven citizen board members are aware of student issues and attend all the board meetings. Student Governor is a public position. The governor is an advocate in the community, attends community service events and lots of dinners. “Being well rounded is key,” Calloway said. 

 One of the finalists, freshman Megan Stahl, from DeKalb, MO says that she became interested in the position after she received an e-mail from a friend’s mother who works in the president’s office. “She told me to look into it,” Stahl said. On campus she works in the Student Service Office, where she is involved in registration. Stahl was active in her student council on high school, where she served as treasurer. Stahl also played basketball, softball, and ran track. 

Sophomore Dillon Harp also became interested in becomingStudent Governor after receiving an e-mail about the qualifications. He thinks he would like the job because it would allow him the opportunity to see the college campus from different perspectives, both as a student and as a board member. “Basically, I didn’t feel I was involved enough on campus, “Harp said. On campus Harp is a member of the Young Republicans and has just been appointed a position on the Legislative Affairs Committee. In high school Harp participated in Future Business Leaders of America, was inducted into the National Honor Society, served on the Senior executive committee, and was the co-captain of his football team. He is from Chillicothe, Mo.

The third finalist, Joshua Todd, is a freshman from Kansas City, Mo. Todd is presently a SGA senator hoping to get more involved on campus. Todd says that he’s always been interested in politics and even worked as in intern for congressman Sam Graves while in high school. He was also involved in DECA and ranked nationally in Forensics and Debate. “I really hope to be able to communicate with the Board of Governors and listen to the students,” Todd said.

The requirements for Student Governor aren’t particularly stringent. Students must simply be a Missouri resident, be involved on campus, have a minimum G.P.A. of 3.0, and have no existing felony charges. The process to select a new Student Governor, however, is far more rigid:

From the pool of candidates, the outgoing Student Governor selects three. The three applicants are reviewed by the Board of Governors where one is selected. The candidate travels to Jefferson City where he or she is confirmed by the state senate. After this, the candidate is appointed by the governor, (called a gubernatorial appointment, by the way.) And finally, the appointee is sworn in by a judge.

About his potential successors, Calloway said, “They’ll all do well, they’ll interview well, and hopefully, it will be a difficult decision for the governor.”

 “My main goal is to get a well-rounded and diverse senate that are very opinionated and don’t share the same ideas,” SGA Vice President Jennifer Kohler said. “I would also like to see SGA build a better relationship with faculty and administration.”

 The organization recently combined positions on the executive board to make it smaller and to give the remaining positions more work to make their duties more valuable.

 “For this term we appointed three executive board members,”  SGA President Harold Callaway said. “This goes a little bit against the constitution but it makes their jobs worthwhile.”

 The motive of combining positions was to make the executive board more effective and helped save more money.
 “I think combining positions was a great idea,” Director of Student Relations Stephanie Gromowski said. “Not only does this give me more work to do but this also saves SGA money.” 

 The senate would like to see more involvement among campus. One technique to get more students involved is the Student Involvement Program (SIP). The program is waiting to be approved by the senate.

 “We are wanting to start the SIP to get students more involved,” Kohler said. “For example, if a student goes to a football game they will have their student id scanned. Their name will then go into a drawing pool for the spring concert where names will be drawn and prizes will be handed out.”

 One project that is in the making is the idea of a flag way. This would be a row of flags lined up at the main entrance of the university to show the different countries where some of our students are originally from.

 SGA is also trying to find more ways to let the student body know what the organization is all about and to retain more senators. The senate body currently sustains about 23 senators and can hold a total of 40 senators. They are looking to increase the number of senators, Callaway said.

 “I possibly would like to be able to write a short column to the Griffon News each week letting the student body know what senate is working on,” he said. “This would be similar to a note from the president’s desk.”

On Nov. 13, Herrington and running mate Emily Feger filed a formal grievance to the Election Commission claiming Harold Callaway and his supporters illegally canvassed Vaselakos Hall in an effort to gain votes in the election. The grievance was later addressed by the Commission the Tuesday following the elections, which Callaway and running mate Jennifer Kohler won by 83 votes.

According to Election Commissioner Katy Schwartz, “No violation of any of the Student Government election rules was made.”

Herrington said the grievance was filed because the activities performed by Callaway were in direct violation of the Student Handbook.  Herrington believed the Commission should have voided the results of the Nov. 14-15 election and should hold a second election. 

When Callaway and his supporters attempted to distribute election information in the residence halls, Herrington said they violated the policy regarding solicitation in the residence halls. 

The policy states: “Official registered campus organizations wishing to canvass door-to-door must request this at least 7 days in advance to Residence Council. Canvassing for sales/profit is prohibited. If approved the organization must contact the front desk in the area in which they wish to canvass.”

Callaway argued that that while he and his supporters did talk to students in Vaselakos Hall about the SGA elections, he said he felt he did not directly violate the policy because he was not an “official registered campus organization.”  Also, Callaway said since he was not selling anything for profit, he was also not in direct violation of the solicitation policy.
Herrington said he and Feger would have dropped the complaints if they were allowed to canvass the residence halls on Wednesday Nov. 14, to have the same opportunity already taken by their opponents. 

Cindy Heider, interim assistant provost and vice president of academic and student affairs and faculty advisor for the SGA, said that after contacting Michael Speros, the director of residential life, the distribution of materials was stopped and the items removed.

Herrington said in an e-mail to Heider, “It is entirely unfair, that we followed the rules and policies, and did not have an opportunity to talk to any residents, while our opponents disobeyed the policies, and talked to those residents.”  Herrington then continued to ask for something to be done, “to either punish the students responsible, or to allow us an opportunity to equal the playing field.”

After the election, student G-numbers were pulled to tally exactly how many students in Vaselakos voted each candidate.  Fewer than fifty people voted for Callaway and Kohler but Herrington believes this is irrelevant.

“Living in the residence halls is an incubator of student involvement/awareness,” Herrington said. “It would only take 42 students in V-Hall to influence the election since each one could have easily reminded on friend to vote.”

The Election Commission was composed of the Election Commissioner Schwartz, Katrina Trammell, Amanda Williams, Armande Willis and Tyson Malone.  It is the Election Commissioners duty to choose an even number with at least four members of the student body to serve on the Commission.  Herrington and Feger raised concerns about the make-up of the Commission due to the fact that Schwartz and Trammell were both members of Alpha Sigma Alpha, the same sorority as Kohler.  Feger said all concerns addressed to administration were deemed invalid and she was told they were not allowed any changes.

After the grievance filed was found not to be in violation of election rules, Commission member Williams said if Herrington and Feger still felt there were violations of the Student Handbook, they would need to speak with administration and the dean of student development.
Herrington and Feger have filed an appeal of the Election Commission’s decision to the Student Court.  The Court will hold a hearing Thursday, Dec. 6.

Callaway and Kohler beat their opponents Luke Herrington and Emily Feger in the SGA elections held Nov. 14-15 by 83 votes. They will replace the current SGA President Natalie Bailey and current SGA Vice-President Herrington. This was the first fall election at Missouri Western.  The last election was held in spring 2006 where the student body voted on constitutional changes that included changing voting dates.  Bailey and Herrington served the only three-semester term at Missouri Western.  This year’s ballot did not include any Constitutional changes. 

Herrington and Feger filed a formal grievance claiming violations in the Callaway/Kohler campaign, but the Election Commission found no violations of the election rules.  Herrington currently has an appeal pending with the Student Court.
“I’m ready to take office and get this Election Commission stuff behind us,” Callaway said.  Callaway and Kohler began their transition to office Monday Dec. 3.

Students also elected Western Activites Council President Janel Banks and Vice President Branford Lomax Nov. 14-15.  This will be Banks’ second term as WAC president.  She ran unopposed this election.  Twenty-six senators were also elected at the same time.

Residence Council’s 2008 President Kayla Wymore and Vice President Samy Northcutt were elected the following day on a separate ballot.

Callaway said he believed campaigns were the key to getting votes.

“It’s obvious we hit the campaign trail harder than the opposition did,” Callaway said.

His campaign “Working With, Not Against,” focused on students and their needs. The Callaway/Kohler campaign wanted to work on reducing the cost of textbooks and allocating money to better food options through work with dining services.  Callaway and Kohler also hope to implement SIP: Student Involvement Program.

This proposed program would increase student involvement on campus while giving away incentives to students.
“We’re hoping to get people out to more events through SIP,” Callaway said.

Some of the propositional incentives for SIP include drawings for things as small as flex dollars and gift cards to local businesses to giving away shopping sprees and even the possibility of a lease on a new car.  Students would be able to enter at all events attended throughout the semester. Drawing for top prizes would be at Spring Concert where students must be present to win.

SIP was an idea crafted by Callaway and supporters before elections began, but Callaway found an even more important reason for SIP while talking to students during his campaign.

“There are so many people that had never heard of SGA before and I had to explain to them what it was,” Callaway said.
Junior Dustin Strickler campaigned for Callaway and Kohler and made the same discovery.

“The first question I would ask someone is if they knew about the SGA elections and three-fourths said ‘no’,” Strickler said. “The second question was if they knew what SGA was and still I’d get the same response.”

Callaway has been the Missouri Western’s student governor for the past four semesters and has served in SGA for two separate administrations.

“I plan on breaking the stigma and making sure people know we do is vital,” Callaway said. He said he hopes his platform and SIP will minimize any past downs and increase the ups.

“Hopefully we’ll implement something future administrations will want to continue also,” Callaway said.

Strickler said he knew Callaway would be a great front-runner and he wanted to support him from the beginning.

“It’s always great to see someone with a smile on their face no matter the situation,” Strickler said.  “He has great relations with administration, he’s a well-rounded guy and he’s always looking fresh in his three-piece suit and power tie.”

Callaway’s term as Student Governor ends this semester.  In January the position will be vacant until Gov. Matt Blunt chooses a replacement from three candidates. Currently there is only one interested candidate.
 

The candidates that are running are Luke Herrington and Harold Calloway for president, and Emily Feger and Jennifer Kohler for vice president. This election will also permit students to vote on constitutional issues such as the amendment that the SGA holds.

SGA is encouraging that students vote on the issues and the positions that will be filled. Katy Schwartz, chief of staff of Student Government Association said by permitting student to vote on constitutional matters such as the SGA amendments students are given a voice and are allowed to take a stand on what they believe should be changed, omitted and or added.

“ I hope that a lot of students come out and vote so that their voice can be heard,” Schwartz said. “My expectations are that students will come out and vote, because we are here for the student body and we want to hear thier voice on things that matter to them.

Not only do the current members of SGA have high expectations for this election, but candidates do as well. Herrington, one of the candidates for president, made an appearance at the NAACP meeting and introduced himself to the organization and its members. He spoke with the students about the elections and confronted any concerns that the students had.

Acting dean and SGA Advisor, Cynthia Heider said it is important for students come out and vote on the issues the new SGA leaders.
“This is an election for and by the students,” said Heider. “As administration I am not allowed to intervene and say what should and should not happen.”

Heider also said that the entire student body should be involved in the elections, so their point of view is taken, or at least considered by the elected president and the those working with the president on certain issues that deal with the student body.

Schwartz said when students are voting it will be beneficial for them to know that Herrington and Feger are campaigning with one another while Calloway and Kohler are campaigning with one another.

Voting will be available Nov. 14 and 15 online only. As students, they will also be able to vote on Western Activities Council’s President and Vice President, and Residence Council’s President and Vice president.

The issue of SGA t-shirts was first introduced by SGA president Natalie Bailey during the executive board reports in the opening of the meeting. According to Bailey, each fall semester the SGA prints t-shirts as a marketing tool for recruiting new students and creating interest in the organization.

 This fall however, the request was denied by SGA adviser and interim assistant provost and vice president of academic and student affairs Dr. Cindy Heider based on a standing policy which states advisers must approve organization expenditures which exceed $1000.
The proposed t-shirts would have had an image of a closed fist with pinky and index finger extended, similar to the Texas University “Hook ‘em Horns” gesture and the phrase “SGA Rocks.”

Heider stated in the meeting that the request had been denied due to conflicting definitions of the proposed hand image, and because of confusion about the t-shirts having been for SGA week.

“It has nothing to do with SGA week; that’s when we hand them out. I’ve said that repeatedly, and I don’t know why that concept hasn’t gotten through,” Bailey said.

Dr.Heider clarified her stance on the issue, explaining the absence of an affiliation with an event was a problem.

“You target market,” said Heider. “You tie it in with something to get the most for the money. You don’t just give away t-shirts- to give away t-shirts, that’s not good marketing.

Another issue in open discussion was the question of Katy Schwartz scholarship support as SGA chief of staff which the senate has supported.
Early this fall, Heider came across the absence of administrative approval for the new constitution which the SGA had voted to approve in April 06 rendering it invalid and forcing the SGA to revert to the old constitution which reduced Schwartz scholarship support from one third to one quarter.

Schwartz addressed Heider directly at the meeting, “You vetoed this senate’s support of my scholarship when in fact I’m doing everything I should be paid one third tuition and fees for doing. If you want me under the old constitution, then my job diminishes. If you want the extra responsibilities, you can have them,” Shwartz said. “This senate supports me, and you clearly don’t.”
Bailey believes that changes will be made to the way that SGA functions once meetings with Scanlon and Bragin have concluded. In response, Jasmine, president of MWSU chapter of the NAACP said, “No one is going to get anything done on campus. Our students are the ones suffering and that is totally and utterly wrong,” as she walked out of the meeting followed by three other SGA members.

The list of books read includ­ed popular works such as The Color Purple by Alice Walker and The Chocolate Wars by Robert Cormier. Some lesser known works read were The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende and The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar.

Dr. Michael Cadden, who played a major role in organizing the event, believes it is important for people to be aware of challenged literature.
“It’s an exercise in  freedom of expression and awareness build­ing,” Cadden said.

The event was started in 1997 and people such as area teachers, newscasters and professors showed their support for the readings.
Dr. Cadden asks these various people to choose a book they care about and read a passage from it.

“My assumption is if somebody cares about a book, somebody, somewhere has challenged it,” Cadden said.

There is no debate involved in the reading of the books, it is just an opportunity for people to give some background on a challenged or banned book of their choice and read about five minutes on any part they choose.

A majority of the people who attended the reading were associated with Missouri Western.

“It is surprising I think, though, that there are so few community people in the audience,” Cadden said, “I’m surprised sometimes at how little curiosity there is.”

Dr. Cadden also thought it could be the level of advertising for the event as to why the community attendance was low.
Jennifer Vermillion and Dr. Patricia Donaher were two of the eight readers.

Vermillion is a Spanish and French teacher from Lathrop High School and believes chal­lenged books should be more available to people.

“I understand people’s perspective, and I’m respectful of peo­ple’s opinion,” Vermillion said.  “I wouldn’t want to push books on people, but I am against the idea of making them completely unavailable to people.”

Dr. Donaher is appreciative that Western does this because it gives the speakers a way to let people know why certain books have been censored
“I really think it’s important we have some kind of an event where we make sure that the censorship issue is more well known,” Donaher said.

Dr. Donaher also believes challenged books should be made more available to the public.

“Parents should be the ones who tell their child they can’t read a certain book, not the librarian,” Donaher said.

Freedom of expression has been an issue of much discussion on Missouri Western’s campus and the banned book reading is one way to use this freedom.

Missouri Western is the only public university in the state that employs commissioned officers that do not carry guns.

Beth Wheeler, Director of External Relations, spearheaded the task force that collected the information from outside
entities such as the Loan Executive Management Assistance Program (LEMAP) of the International Association of College
Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), who visited campus and made recommendations to improve the safety of campus.

“It started because Public Safety wanted to provide a safer atmosphere on campus,” Wheeler said.

In the fall of 2005 the Department of Public Safety submitted a grant requesting funding to get an external review of their
policies, procedures and tactics with the purpose to make the campus safer. After the grant was approved, the Public Safety Task
force was constructed, consisting of Wheeler; and students such as SGA President Natalie Bailey; SGA VP Luke Herrington; NAACP President Jasmine Pasley; with faculty members Kip Wilson, Criminal Justice; Michael Speros, Director of Residential Life; and Trevor Brown, Public Safety officer.

Along with the recommendation that Public Safety carry weapons, the people from LEMAP also suggested that officers receive additional training in cross-cultural communications, beyond the minimum required to become a commissioned
police officer. The additional training is aimed to mend the apparent rift between the DPS and minorities
on campus.

“A lot of the issues that the minority community and DPS are having are usually more communication problems. Sometimes
it’s an issue of stereo typing and the stigma that is carried with being a minority on this campus,” Jasmine Pasley, president
of Missouri Western’s NAACP chapter, said. “It’s still a hot topic, but I think that they’re having a better understanding,
and maybe something can be rectified with communication.”

Not only will arming the public safety provide them with tools needed to respond to a threat, it will cut back on DPS’s reliance
onthe St. Joseph Police Department during critical situations.

 “I hope it means we can stand alone and be a community without having to call in our neighbors all the time to come in and assist us,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler went on to explain that students are not the threat. The threat comes from people outside of campus that see the community as easy prey.

“Many of the encounters with weapons and (fighting) is not with western students, it’s with others that come on to campus who think it’s a nice place to cruise, or to offer you items for sale,” Wheeler said.

The Public Safety Task Force will be holding open meetings throughout the week for students and faculty to learn more about their findings and voice an opinion. The meetings are as follows:

• Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 9:30 a.m. –Open Staff/ Administrations Forum Spratt 110

• Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 3 p.m. –Open Faculty Forum Spratt 110

• Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. –Open Student/Residence Council Forum in Commons

• Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 3 p.m. –Open Staff/Administrator Forum in Spratt 110

• Thursday, Oct. 4 at noon –Open Student Forum in Eder 208

• Thursday, Oct. 4 at 4 p.m. –Open Faculty/Faculty Senate Forum in Blum 220

• Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 1:30 p.m. –Staff Association Meeting in Spratt 208

SGA’s new advisor and Interim Assistant Provost and Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs,  Cindy Heider, said she came across the absence of administrative approval while familiarizing herself with the processes of the organization prior to the SGA constitutional convention scheduled for Sept. 16.

“Some resolutions were still in a kind of a limbo, and we needed to make sure they were getting formally approved or that they were being revised,” Heider said. “But I couldn’t find anywhere that the most recent constitution had actually been approved at the administrative level.”

She then approached Provost and Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs Joseph Bragin with the issue.  Heider said Bragin wanted to make sure the constitution had the authority and the approval so that it could operate and there wouldn’t be any question on what is and is not allowed.
 
SGA Vice President Luke Herrington believes the constitution was adequately approved because the current Dean of Student Development at the time, Paul Shang, had to have signed it because elements in the new constitution such as the existance of the Student Court were printed in the Student Handbook, which is published by the dean’s office. Herrington believes that since the student body approved the constitution more than a year and a half ago and no one has raised objections, then the administration must know and should recognize without question that these changes have been in place. Herrington assumes the constitution was lost on its way to the Vice President because of transitions made between former Vice President David Arnold, Interim Vice President Jeanie Daffron and eventually Bragin.

Herrington also believes that regardless of where the constitution was lost, it would have been made valid by the dean of student development’s signature alone. Every previous constitution was approved after a student body vote, a signature by the SGA president and a signature from the dean of student development.  None of the previous constitutions has required signatures from the provost and president.  In addition, there is nothing in The Handbook or the Missouri Western Policy Guide that mandates the additional two signatures.  Still, Heider and Bragin both argue that the constitution is illegitimate because it is lacking two additional signatures from the provost and university president.

“I think a lot of this is tied up with the SGA fee that’s been instituted, and the SGA really has to be sensitive to the fact that since they have the ability to recommend allocations of money and things like that that there is going to be more scrutiny over what they do and how they do it,” Heider said.

The SGA fee was implemented in fall 2003 and gave SGA the opportunity to spend over $400,000 on the students. Herrington feels the students should have the right to spend their money as they wish.
 
“They are trying to treat us like one of their departments…which has to do whatever they say,” Herrington said. “They are not letting us properly represent the students, which is what we are supposed to do. We are not supposed to be a tool of the administration.”
With the fear of the constitution truly being illegitimate, senators contested that their positions would all be invalid as well.

Under the previous constitution, the Articles of Association, SGA would be reduced to 20 senators, the Student Court would not exist, and the terms of office of the executive members would have expired this past spring after an election held in April.

Since an election was not held in April, under the Articles of Association, the only legitimate member of SGA would be Student Governor Harold Callaway because his office is appointed by the state of Missouri.

Heider confirmed that SGA is a recognized organization on our campus and that they have a constitution.

“We continue to have a smooth operation,” Heider said. “We didn’t want this to be disruptive in any way at all. We are just asking them to update their constitution and have it have re-approved.”

Though some changes were proposed at the constitutional convention Sunday, SGA plans to continue with the convention forum in October.

“The convention is a regular effort by the student body to update their constitution,” Heider said. “And I think they can reaffirm the parts they believe are still current and update the parts that they would prefer to have changed and then we can move that forward.”

But there is a new name on campus, and the Western Activities Council is the new moniker for CAB.

Emily Feger, who is a WAC board member, said that CAB is an overused word.

“WAC reflects our change to our university and student campus life,” Feger said. “We are trying to up things because nobody comes to our events. With WAC, more students will pay attention to it.”

The panel of the organization got together and made a decision to come up with a new name. Many names were discussed, but they didn’t quite fit the campus demographics. WAC was chosen out of all the other names because it was more personalized.

Once a decision was reached, the organization panel brought the suggested change to SGA, which approved it. Then it was up to the student body. Students were able to vote online for the approval of the name change, and it was passed.

So, CAB is now officially WAC, and not all students like the new name.

Sophomore Baron Bradshaw said that the name is WACK, and that they should have kept CAB because that’s what everyone knows.

“I think they should have stayed with CAB because that’s what everyone knows,” Bradshaw said. “The next three classes are still going to think of it as CAB. WAC is going to be the butt of all jokes.”

Junior Kristin McKinney is another student who thinks that changing the name is not going to bring about more students, but only limit them.

“If they want a better turnout with their activities, do something that every student could relate to,” McKinney said. “They need to reach out to a broader audience.”

But it’s a little too late for the students who don’t like the name. Feger is confident that the new name was the right thing to do.

“CAB is really old; everybody in the country uses it,” Feger said.

Western’s Student Senate released student ID card discounts, approved $1,500 in funding for new bulletin boards, decided to sponsor a blood drive and approved the Campus Activity Board changing its name to Western’s Activity Council.

Faculty and students can now receive discounts at several St. Joseph area businesses just by showing their Western ID cards. These businesses are in the above inset box. A number of other schools in the state, including Maryville and Kansas City, are participating in this program. If a Western student travels to one of these cities, they can receive the same discounts that particular school receives. For the list of the discount amounts please visit www.studentsavingsclub.com.

Senate approved a $1,500 cap for funding of new bulletin boards. At the time of the meeting, the senators thought they were buying 10 bulletin boards at $120 a piece from the company Brown Mannschreck. Kathy Kelly of the student development office, who ordered the bulletin boards, says it may end up costing more.

“There is a little bit of a hang up right now,” Kelly said. “What they approved was not the prices I got. The nicer bulletin boards will cost a little more.”

Western is still expected to receive nine to 10 bulletin boards. The boards are expected to be shipped in the next two to six weeks. The executive board has picked what were the most popular sites for posters and is planning to place the boards there.

Moving on to other business, the SGA is sponsoring a community blood drive on April 25 from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on the first floor of the Blum Union Lounge.

SGA President Natalie Bailey takes these decisions seriously. “We are in the process of promoting it right now,” Bailey said. “SGA has not sponsored a blood drive in three or four years.”

One other issue approved was CAB becoming WAC. CAB changed its name to WAC, Western’s Activity Council, to breathe new life into the name of the organization.

“When we went to NACA, we saw other schools weren’t called CAB,” CAB President Janell Banks said. “The name was getting old. We wanted to personalize the name.”

SGA also recognized two groups as official Western organizations. MWSU Student Council of the International Reading Assocation became an official organization. It promotes literacy to individuals from elementary to high school. They meet the first Tuesday of every month at 2 p.m. in Murphy 112. Zeta Phi Beta was recognized as an official Western organization, too.

As another order of business, Tim Schaffer was removed as a member of the Financial Oversight Committee.

In last week’s issue, Margaret Slayton wrote an informative article on the research database: J-STOR.

However, some information was lacking, and I would like to bring to light, the series of events that took place in order for this program to be available. Many members of the faculty have lobbied the Library for years, hoping their efforts would result in the purchase of J-STOR. Our professors recognized the program’s value and realized it would be a valuable asset. The faculty had all but given up though, believing their uphill battle was in vain. Their hopes were rejuvenated last year when the Student Government Association weighed in on the issue. Library Director Julia Schneider and Electronic Services Librarian Darrin Daugherty were invited to a Student Senate meeting, to discuss the potential for Western’s library to attain JSTOR.

The guests made it seem as if J-STOR was only used by doctoral students. After giving the students attending the meeting a barrage of excuses, they left the Senate as if they simply had no intention of purchasing the system. The SGA was alarmed to uncover data showing that MWSU was one of the only schools in the state without JSTOR.

It was even discovered that some high schools had the amazing resource.

The Senate’s Academic Affairs Committee started a petition drive at the end of last year, but fell short of five hundred students by only thirty signatures. It seemed that the supporters of J-STOR were dealt yet another defeat, when Professor Jonathan Euchner met with Director Schneider on behalf of the Department of Government, Social Work, and Sociology.

Dr. Euchner informed members of SGA that he and his colleagues were giving up, as it seemed the Library had no intention of getting the program.

The SGA and some pessimistic faculty members however, still had hope. Despite the defeats, and excuses, SGA continued to lobby the Library. It seemed the efforts paid off last semester when a trial edition was started.

However, something shady seemed afoot after the Library acquired the trial. No one knew it was there. In fact, it was only when an e-mail from the SGA sent to further research the  J-STOR issue, caused the library to inform the SGA Executive Board about the trial. A few mass emails were sent out to faculty and students, to prevent the program from being cancelled because its trial never had enough usage.

J-STOR being an important asset brings journal articles up automatically in PDF format.

For all practical purposes, when researching, there is no need to cite any website, because J-STOR is putting the real journal into the grasps of its users. This resource is a valuable addition to the Library. Students should not be misled though, to believe it was the hard work of the Library staff that resulted in the purchase of the program.

It took the hard work of a few determined faculty members and students to make it through J-STOR’s darker past.

The Student Senate was a sparse gathering at the last meeting as the senators discussed the lack of attendance at the SGA leadership retreat.

The retreat that was to be held at Bass Woods in Platte City, Mo was designed to stimulate camaraderie over a weekend of leadership training.

There were openings for 50 students.

Half that amount signed up, but only seven decided to attend.

Paul Shang, dean of student development, was to speak at the event.

“I was very disappointed,” Shang said. “We had a great group of presenters lined up and a very ambitious agenda and I just think it was very disappointing.”

The retreat was an open invitation to anyone involved in campus activities or interested in learning about leadership.

While all of the student senators that sent in an R.S.V.P. managed to show, 17 other potential leaders did not.

Luke Herrington, vice president of the SGA, was equally disappointed.

“My little lecture on people not showing up for the meetings was pretty important,” Herrington said. ”Because we need to make sure we have our senate full, and if not full, we need to make sure we have our senators here to make sure we are doing our best to represent the students.”

There are levels of accountability for the members of the SGA.

Student senators are only allowed to miss three meetings a term and missing an office hour counts as missing half a meeting.

“There has been a low turn out for quite some time,” Herrington said. “We can do better than this.”

That’s what Natalie Bailey, SGA president, said about the number of senators the Student Senate currently has, and the decrease the senatorial body faced since the beginning weeks of school.

At the end of the 2006 spring semester, 20 new senators were elected. A couple of weeks after the fall semester started, 18 more senators were appointed, leaving the number at 38. Since then, eight senators have left, resulting in 10 open seats for the Student Senate.

This decrease leaves questions in some people’s minds as to why there was such a reduction within the first quarter of the school year.

The Student Senate, the main representation and voice of the student body, is committed to serving the students at Western in the best way possible. That being said, how hard is it to fully represent a large body of people without a full senatorial body?

Luke Herrington, president of the Student Senate and vice-president of SGA, has decided that the Student Senate will continue on with its business despite the number of senators.

“It is important to have as many people as possible partake in discussion and voting to represent our studentbody to the best of our abilities,” Herrington said.

Herrington also said that with a lower number of senators comes a lower representation of the students.

“I think having a full body will only make it better,” Herrington said.

Several reasons contributed to the decrease in senators. Most were due to previous obligations and time commitments.

One nontraditional student was taking more than 18 credit hours with a family and a job. The requirement became too hard to fulfill. Other students had work and classes that wouldn’t allow for them to make it to the meetings.

One senator, Jeremy Funk, had to resign from Senate because of military duty.

“I left to go oversees, Funk said. “When I came back, they changed my days off.”

Unable to rejoin because of his working schedule, Funk said he would return if he could.

Herrington recalled that each year several students get weeded out in the first several weeks because of time commitments, class, work and other reasons.

“I think some people want to be active, and they just over- stretch themselves,” Herrington said. “I’m really glad that we still have more than 20 senators, and we’ve reached 3/4 of our goal.”

Bailey agrees that it is something that happens every year.

“I don’t see it as a problem,” Bailey said. “Of course we want to be at 40 senators, but we want people who want to be there.”

Forty people compared to 30 can cover a lot more of the student body.

“I’m not really worried about the senate,” Funk said. “I think as long as they keep promoting senate, they will get their numbers back. Once they get it out to the new people and promote it more, they will have upcoming members that will replace them. It’s a great organization that can cope very well with the members it has.”

SGA President Natalie Bailey and Vice President Luke Herrington were voted into office at the end of the 2006 spring semester. The two have a lot on their plate and are ready to dig in.

“I would say that the biggest goal that I can think of for SGA right now would be our town gown’ relations,” SGA President, Natalie Bailey said. “This is basically how we communicate with St. Joe and how they communicate with us. We’re really trying to get out there and do things for the community and that way the community in turn will do things for us.”

Bailey said that they are trying to get involved in St. Joe traditions like the Apple Blossom Parade and Light the Night.

“SGA has been trying to get a team together and we want as many students as possible to come participate with us,” Bailey said.

Bailey said that getting a better connection between the community and Western is one of her biggest concerns while in office. Another goal SGA wants to achieve is the completion the food court project.

“One of our main goals is trying to get the food court finished, get through the second and third phase,” Bailey said. “I don’t know when that’s going to happen but we’re pushing along trying to get that all taken care of.”

Herrington plays a dual role as both SGA vice president and the senate president. One of his main goals is to expand the senate to try and get more students involved.

“We want to increase the size of the student senate because having more students involved brings in a wider array of opinions, view points, etc,” Herrington said.

Herrington said one reason to expand the senate is to help sufficiently represent the student body.

Due to constitution changes voted on last year by the student body, Bailey and Herrington will have an extra semester in office.

“Instead of running from the end of one year through, now the term changes in January,” Bailey said. “So every president after us will go spring and fall. In order to get that track set we had to do a year and half to where we took office with the old term always halves and then we will go all the way until when the new term is.”

Herrington said one of his goals is to simply just survive the year and half in office.

“It’s going to be more work but it’s going to be more work in a good way,” Bailey said. “We have an extra semester to do things and we can make our mark on campus. So I’m really excited about having the extra time to really get some stuff done.”

Bailey said she wants to make sure that things are in place for future senates so that SGA can flourish and continue to be strong.

Some other goals that Bailey and Herrington have are trying to get more people involved.

“We’re just trying to get students involved. We want to find those student leaders, grab them and bring them into activities and things that we do, that way it’s not the same five people,” Bailey said. “We’re really focusing on it and trying to find new and innovative ways to get people to our things.”

Dean of Students Paul Shang said that it was wise choice by the student body to vote Bailey and Herrington into office.

“I think as far as knowledgeable students, students who are committed to the institution, students who are familiar with a wide range of different kinds of things that affect other students, they are wonderful and very experienced student leaders,” Shang said. “I think they are going to accomplish a lot.”

SGA is an umbrella for five branches: the executive branch, the legislative branch, Residence Council, Campus Activities Board and the new judicial branch.

With the changing of officers came some major changes in SGA as a whole.

After five months, nine drafts and many late nights, the Student Senate finally voted on a completed version of the constitution, which completely revamped SGA.

“There are too many changes to go through and name every single one,” said Luke Herrington, vice-president of SGA and president of the Student Senate.

The new constitution went from 17 pages of choppy, large paragraphs to a more user-friendly version that read easily and was more than tripled in size.

Student Senator Lindsay Moyer said the changes made SGA more organized and easier when it came to getting work done.

“The new constitution is easier to understand,” Moyer said. “It is giving SGA a positive outlook towards the future.”

The future was definitely one thing the senate had in mind while rewriting the constitution.

The two branches mainly affected by the transition were the executive the judicial branches.

The executive branch, which is comprised of the Student Senate, expanded from 20 senators to 40.

“It was felt that incorporating new members, more members, would offer more opinions, views and ideas when attacking problems,” Herrington said. “The senate never used to have a demographic break down based on certain types of constituencies, now it does.”

Two senators represent each class – freshmen through seniors, with six senators represent each college – Professional Studies and Liberal Arts and Science. The rest of the senators are at-large positions.

The second branch was largely affected by the revamped constitution. The judicial branch is a new branch implemented to provide students with an unbiased court. Previously, a special committee of student senators dealt with judicial affairs.

“I thought that was dangerous because if there were ever a controversial problem, we could have many conflicts of interest,” Herrington said.

The Student Court was established within the Judicial Branch and serves as the Supreme Court to SGA. It is the one organization that students cannot be members of while being part of another SGA organization.

Although the process of transition was long, Herrington and SGA president Natalie Bailey are very pleased with the results.

“The process was really exciting,” Bailey said. “Luke did a lot of the legwork, but it was really cool being part of the changes.”

“Our expansion efforts were our way to involve more students,” Herrington said.

With more students in the picture, Herrington and Bailey have planned to reach some important goals. One of the goals SGA hopes to accomplish is to set up a book co-op due to Barnes and Noble’s monopoly on college text books.

“With Passport being closed, book prices are really hurting students,” Herrington said. “It’s our duty to find a way to combat that problem.”

Also in store for the new school year is the issue with the community involvement.

“I want the students to help out with the town,” Bailey said. “So many people have said that St. Joseph isn’t a college town, and I want to change that.”

Bailey also said that St. Joseph does not help out with Western traditions as much as it used to, and Western doesn’t participate in the community like it should.

“We need to show that we want to be part of the community,” Bailey said. “I want us to get along.”

These new changes and implementations are just a start of what is to come. For more information about the newly revised constitution visit SGA homepage at www.missouriwestern.edu/sga.