SGA met at an atypical hour last week due to the snow day. Therefore, this update will cover our proceedings from the past two weeks.
Thursday, 02/21/19
SGA heard and approved a $2,000.00 funding request from BSU for the Civil Rights Spring Break Tour. The trip’s additional expenses will be covered by fundraising/ donations, participant fees, and funds from the Multicultural Services Office. During open floor, Theo Yoder shared about his experience attending the convocation committee meetings. He informed the senate that the committee discussed the pros and cons of convocation points and whether they should be awarded for off-campus events. In addition, they reviewed the convocation speaker guidelines. These guidelines are sent to upcoming speakers and essentially outline EMU’s mission statement and community values. This document and procedure were formed, in part, as a response to the N.T. Wright controversy.
Wednesday, 02/27/19
Wednesday, 02/27/19 SGA heard and approved two funding requests and heard an update from Bruce Emmerson, the director of EMU’s food services, as well as his boss, Steve Brandy.
Bruce and Steve, at the request of the senate, provided a brief update on the status of all things food-related at EMU. They shared about the upcoming renovations to the cafeteria and wanted to hear from students to inform that process. While the funding for the project is only about halfway to the goal, Steve strongly believes that it will happen. They will be expanding the cafeteria space toward the commons, adding additional worker-attended modules, and potentially adding outdoor seating. The new serving area will be twice its current size and there will be more natural light entering the cafeteria from the new east-facing windows. If you have any suggestions to make the our cafeteria more awesome, contact Bruce or an SGA senator!
The first funding request was from Celebration for $300.00 to reimburse their drum-shield construction expenses. Celebration received funding from Campus Ministries and contributed some of their own funds for this project. They were able to obtain and assemble the shield components cheaply by collaborating with Engineers for a Sustainable World.
In addition, SGA heard a unique request from The Weather Vane this week. The Weather Vane has been operating with a deficit in its semester budget as well as its retention fund. Several of the factors that resulted in this situation were the improper use of finances by previous leadership, miscommunication, turnover between advisors and student leaders, and the loss of several semesters’ records of ad sales.
The current Weather Vane leadership and advisor requested a $5,500 bail-out from SGA to neutralize this semester’s budget, return their retention fund to 2016 levels, and provide funds for their 2018-2019 Year in Review special edition.
SGA chose to approve The Weather Vane’s request for the full amount, drawing the necessary money from the Shen’s (EMU’s retired yearbook) retention fund.
