Kansas State University

Kansas State University Student Governing Association Newsletter

November 12th, 2018

Executive Branch

Student Body President and Vice President:

Jordan Kiehl and Lacy Pitts, the Student Body President and Vice President, have been hard at work. They have continued to oversee their cabinet’s projects, helping however they can. They also had the opportunity to tour Hale Library, along with Speaker of the Student Senate Ryan Kelly, Speaker Pro Tempore Joshua Arnoldy, and Attorney General Peter Moyer. There is plenty of progress being made, and it is clear that Hale will return better than ever before. Jordan and Lacy would also like to remind you that K-State’s Counseling Services have been moved to Lafene 101. With finals right around the corner, it is important to remember that mental health should never be ignored. The two of them are always looking for new ways to help students, so feel free to email them at jkiehl@ksu.edu and lacyp@ksu.edu.

Cabinet

Student Support Director:

Student Support Director, Ian Boyd, has been working on securing long-term sustainable funding for the Cats’ Cupboard and exploring new advocacy opportunities for outreach to students about food insecurity on campus. He has achieved some progress on the Cats’ Cupboard Advisory Board in advocating for student involvement in fundraising decisions and opportunities. If a student would like to participate in efforts to decrease food insecurity on campus, they can contact Ian Boyd at isboyd@ksu.edu.

Multicultural Affairs Director:

The Multicultural Affairs Director, Makinsey McIntosh, has continued to be involved with the Multicultural Student Center team to work on the schematic design of the center. They have been currently focusing on the outside design and layout of the building. She has also been meeting with the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee to discuss the importance of a separate task force under Adrian Rodriguez and the Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs Office. There is also continued work towards College Diversity Summits and preparing more of the logistics for them next semester.

Academic Affairs Director:

The Academic Affairs Director, Cecilia Pick, has been collaborating with the Career Center and K-State 360 on promoting their different services. Also, she has created a video with K-State Libraries to raise awareness on the relocated services offered after the fire in Hale Library. She is currently collaborating with the Teaching and Learning Center on different projects regarding TEVALs and how to improve the experience for faculty and students to maximize the opportunities for growth through the evaluation.

Graduate Student Council Liaison:

The Graduate Student Council Liaison, Alisa Pajser, has spearheaded the revision of the Graduate Student Parental Leave Policy.  She has been in touch with other individuals that have relevant experience in working with graduate students that have been parents in their time on campus to help us finalize revisions.  Alisa and the GSC will be looking to garner student support for the policy soon.

Campus Climate & Safety Director:

Campus Climate & Safety Director, Mariana Cruz, has officially begun holding meetings to the Wildcat Task Force Against Sexual Violence. Meetings are held every other Tuesday at 7:00pm in the K-State Student Union. If any student has any interest in sharing their insights with the Task Force or attending a meeting, please email Mariana at cruzmar1104@ksu.edu.

Technology Director:

The Technology Director, Victor Valdez, has began laying the groundwork for updates on a Course Schedule update. This last month, Victor also met with the Technology Committee to review Connect, and look for areas for improvements. These improvements were then presented to a task force focused on creating a way for students to easily find any resources.

State Relations Director:

The State Relations Director, Faith Tuttle, is working with the The Student Advisory Committee (SAC) to plan Higher Ed. Day at our Capitol in Topeka this February. In addition, she led the selection of the 2018-19 Legislative Advocates, and they have started making progress on advocating for the upcoming legislative session.

Sustainability Director:

The Sustainability Director, Phillip Underwood, has been working on creating the Green Action Fund Committee for this academic year. If you have proposals to submit to this fund, please send them to sustainability@ksu.edu. He has also been working with the recycling committee on addressing the game day trash and recycling issues that have come about this football season. He would also like to invite you to look for the new display cases in the Union located near the landfill and recycling receptacles that show you what products can and can’t be recycled.

International Affairs Directors:

The International Affairs Co-director, Sidonia McKenzie, has been working with the KState Proud Student Opportunity Awards Committee to make a separate applications form for international students available on their website. This initiative is complete and international students who need temporary financial assistance can access the forms at https://www.found.ksu.edu/k-stateproud/awards.html. Sidonia is also working to increase spousal access to campus resources. She invites international students with spouses to inform her of any resource on campus that their spouse might be interested in. She can be reached at sidonidam@ksu.edu.

 

Judicial Branch:

The KSU SGA Judicial Branch has continued to hear student code of conduct cases. Currently, the application for the 2019-2020 Attorney General is open, but it closes at 5 pm Friday, November 16th. All students are encouraged to apply. The link is: https://orgsync.com/83329/forms/340245 

 

Legislative Branch:

Speaker of the Student Senate:

Student Senate has continued to go smoothly. All of our committees and caucuses are continuing to perform above expectations. During the week of November 4th, we discussed strategies to help make K-State more safe for students as a response to the racist letter posted at Jardine. These discussions continued into Senate on November 8th, where Dr. Pat Bosco answered questions on behalf of the university, and Dr. Jessica Elmore spoke about how we recover from these incidents. We then held small group discussions among our members about diversity and safety. That night, clearly saw the impact this incident has had on our campus, as Wildcat Chamber had every seat filled with both SGA members and concerned students. We were reminded of our duty as student leaders. We look forward to the progress that will be made to create a safer university, and we are proud to play a role in it.

Government Relations:

The Governmental Relations Committee spent the last month planning our first “Party at the Polls.” Teaming up with Student Foundation, we welcomed students, faculty, and community members to enjoy free food, live entertainment, and fun games. It was a great opportunity to encourage students to vote and for us to promote civic engagement. We had so much fun planning and hosting this event!

Intern Program:

The second class of the Intern Program met Thursday, October 18th to kick off the five-week introductory phase. Interns who have attended at least three meetings are eligible to apply for Phase 2, where they will be sworn into our Student Senate and will join the first class of 33 interns. Phase 2 interns have been paired with SGA mentors and began a committee rotation to better understand efforts outside of Senate meetings. We look forward to connecting with potential interns for our third class beginning January 31st!

Travel Allocations Committee:

The Travel Allocations Committee has received and reviewed a total of 35 groups this semester. Friday, November 2nd was the deadline to submit funding requests for trips occurring from now until February 15th. The form has been reopened and we are currently accepting requests for the spring semester. Finally, TAC has begun to review the bylaws concerning Sports Club Allocations and we plan to open the Sports Club Allocation form before the end of the semester.

On-Campus Allocations Committee:

The On-Campus Allocations Committee has been busy working on funding several upcoming events and we want to help fund yours too! The form in open on OrgSync for spring events that your organization will be hosting. Also, the deadline for college councils to submit funding requests for Open House this spring is coming up! The form closes on Friday, December 7^th at midnight. If you have any questions feel free to send them to nilbergsten@ksu.edu.

Privilege Fee Committee:

Privilege Fee Committee has reviewed Student Design Services and Campus Entertainment Fund which were requested for a 5% decrease of funding to $61,750 and a continuance of $150,000 respectively. The Committee is now reviewing Union Program Council which receives $211,000 from student fees annually.

Kansas State University Student Governing Association Newsletter

October 11th, 2018

Executive Branch

Student Body President and Vice President:

Jordan Kiehl and Lacy Pitts, the Student Body President and Vice President, have been very busy since the beginning of the school year. In addition to overseeing the projects that their Cabinet has been working on, they have been representing our school continuously. A few weeks ago, K-State hosted the Big XII Student Governing Association Conference. During this, Jordan and Lacy hosted discussions, led tours, and learned a lot from our peers. The two of them are always looking for new ways to help students, so feel free to email them at jkiehl@ksu.edu and lacyp@ksu.edu.

Cabinet

International Affairs:

The International Affairs Directors, Meenu Mohankumar and Sidonia McKenzie, have organized two Intercultural Learning Workshops. These benefit international students, and are a collaboration with the Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs Office, the International Students and Scholar Services, and International Buddies. They are currently working with the Alumni Association to improve Alumni International Student Scholarships, and are also working with the International Student and Scholar Services and the Career Center to improve international students’ career development.

Local Relations:

The Local Relations Director, Corbin Sedlacek, has been working on updating SafeRide bus routes and marketing efforts to students. Additionally, he is working with the Governmental Relations Committee to engage students in getting out to vote. Lastly, he has been meeting with various groups to help students in the fight to live in safe and affordable housing in Manhattan. If a student has had a bad housing experience, and are willing to share their housing story, please email Corbin at corbin5@ksu.edu.

Multicultural Affairs:

The Multicultural Affairs Director, Makinsey McIntosh, has been working on the Multicultural Student Center plans, as well as sitting on the search committee to find two new directors within the Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs Office. She is also looking forward to beginning work on creating unified diversity summits within each college at the university.

Graduate Student Council Liaison:

The Graduate Student Council Liaison, Alisa Pajser, has been working on a survey to assess how familiar graduate students are with the resources that K-State has for them. The goal is to better publicize the existing resources, and developing new resources for needs that aren’t being met.

Campus Climate and Safety Director:

The Campus Climate and Safety Director, Mariana Cruz, established the Wildcats Task Force Against Sexual Violence. This task force is made up of 15 students who plan to evaluate how Kansas State handles sexual violence on campus, and will ensure student conduct codes and general procedures related to sexual harassment are followed.

Health and Wellness Director:

The Health and Wellness Director, Lane Lundeen, has been working alongside employees of Lafene and other K-State faculty members to improve the ASAP Program. He has also been working with Wendy Barnes and Megan Maransani to spread awareness about Counseling Services and The Wildcat Wellness Coalition. Finally, he has been working with other Cabinet members on K-State’s Health and Wellness Master Plan.

State Relations Director:

The State Relations Director, Faith Tuttle, is currently chairing Legislative Advocates, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for Kansas State’s student interests at the Kansas Capitol in Topeka. All K-State students are welcome to apply. If you are interested in being a part of this organization, please use this link: https://orgsync.com/83329/forms/336964.

 

Judicial Branch

The KSU SGA Judicial Branch has been active hearing student code of conduct cases all year. Also, the Student Review Board is working on modernizing the current hearing script. Finally, the Student Tribunal is working with the Elections Commissioner to prepare for the upcoming student elections. The Judicial Branch looks forward to updating the Student Body about our work as the school year goes on.

 

Legislative Branch

Speaker of the Student Senate:

Student Senate has been off to a good start this semester.  In addition to appointing an Elections Commissioner and approving our new student senators, we have had the opportunity to engage with influential campus leaders.  This past Thursday, October 4th, 2019, we hosted Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Bryan Samuel to, in part, speak to the importance of KSUnite.  Student senators then separated by academic college to coordinate  how best to make students in their college aware of the event.

Government Relations:

The biggest push the Governmental Relations Committee has focused on National Voter Registration Day (NVRD), voter registration, and the upcoming election. Since NVRD has passed, the Committee has hosted one final voter registration drive on October 10th, and have begun working on Get Out the Vote initiatives! This last Wednesday, we begun planning a #VoteTogether party at the polls for Election Day on November 6th. Assuming we get the funding secured, we will have $1000 to plan this election night celebration, which will be put towards food, entertainment, and encouraging a higher voter turnout!

Intern Program:

The SGA Intern Program offers students the perfect way to get involved with SGA! In the program, students will meet with current SGA members and do activities to help them engage with many of the program’s topics. The first class of the SGA intern program ran from September 6^th to October 4^th. Fifty nine students attended the Intern Program meetings, and thirty nine attended a majority of meetings. Class 2 of the Intern Program starts on October 18^th and all students are welcome to attend! Meetings take place at 5:45 pm in Wildcat Chamber. For any questions about the SGA Intern Program, please contact the Intern Coordinators, Nathan Bothwell and Sadie Polson. They can be reached via email at ndbothwell@ksu.edu and scpolson@ksu.edu.”

Travel Allocations Committee:

This semester, the Travel Allocations Committee has had 20 different groups submit requests for travel funding. Thus far, we have passed legislation and funded 8 groups, and we will be adding to that number in the coming weeks.

On-Campus Allocations Committee:

The On-Campus Allocations Committee has been busy early this semester meeting with several groups that are going to have some great events later this semester on campus. These upcoming events cover a wide array of activities and will broaden K-State students’ knowledge on diversity, fine arts, music, and much more! We want to make sure available funding is provided so organizations can have great events here on campus. Please spread the word to classmates and friends! If you have any questions, send them to nilbergsten@ksu.edu.

Student Engagement Committee:

The Student Engagement Committee is currently working on an article to be published in the Collegian regarding the importance of SGA; we are also working on making certain interactive videos about SGA, and we have taken responsibility along with Speaker Pro Tempore Joshua Arnoldy for conducting SGA week next semester. We will also be holding a seminar for student leaders on campus about SGA and how they can participate in it later this semester or early next.

Senate Operations Committee:

The Senate Operations Committee is continuing to serve the Legislative Branch through our work with editing and revising legislation and filling senator vacancies. If anyone is interested in our work or learning more about these processes, we would like to invite you to our weekly meetings! Senate Operations Committee meets every Monday night at 8:00 p.m. in the CSI Conference Room.

Privilege Fee Committee:

Privilege Fee Committee manages the Privilege Fee, a mandatory campus-wide fee that is set by the Board of Regents and recommended by Student Governing Association and the K-State Administration. The Privilege Fee funds many important campus entities that add value to students’ experience such as the Rec Complex, Lafene Health Center, and the K-State Student Union.