SGA student senators discussed the 2015-2016 budget and plans for the remainder of the academic year at Tuesday night’s SGA Senate meeting.
SGA President Monali Haldankar announced that the election packet for 2015-2016 Top Four and Senate will likely be available by the next meeting on Nov. 18.
Academic Vice President Allie Funk spoke about her work with the Study Abroad office, which is looking at the results of a survey sent to students on Oct. 20. The survey aimed to gather student opinions on study abroad opportunities.
In addition, Funk is also working with Dean of Libraries Robert Fox to increase the seats in the 24 hour side of the library. The timeline on this project will depend on the availability of funds.
“We will be hopefully having a 57 percent increase of seats in the 24 hour side, so that is going to be from 120 seats to 201,” said Funk. “It is a $137,000 project, so we are going to figure out where we can get the money.”
Budget will also be a factor for Services Vice President Morgan Cooksey as she works with administration on the student safety resolution. Cooksey said that the university president and provost agreed with the plans of action in the safety resolution, such as the ‘L-Trail’ and the safety app, but the question of funding will effect when students could see these on campus.
“Focusing on safety, we are going to be exploring options for funding. We presented (the safety resolution) to the president and provost, and they are completely on board, as they have been. They really liked all of the ideas that we have presented,” said Cooksey.
Finally, the Senate completed their first reading of the 2015-2016 budget, which will determine how SGA funds will be distributed in the upcoming academic year. They are scheduled to vote on the budget at their final meeting of the semester, November 18, which will be held on the Heath Sciences Campus.
