Senate allocates $3,774 for Health magazine

After much discussion, Senate allocated $3,774 to renew the Student Health 101 magazine with a vote of 12-0 with six senators abstaining.

Senator Tileen Sullivan, one of the abstaining senators, said she didn’t believe the service was being used by students, but changed her vote after Vice President of Finance Nathaniel Jones pointed out that Senate just allocated $14,000 for three speakers and this allocation was only about $3,000.

“I felt like the executive board was pushing their vote on us,” Sullivan said.

Multiple senators said the constituents they talked to were not using the Student Health 101 service.

Senate President Katrina Hurley said, according to the website service, the site has had 1,700 views since Sept. 1 and 1,500 of those views were first-time visitors. Of those numbers, 43 percent of the students said after reading the article they attended to make measurable changes and 69 percent would apply what they learned. Hurley also mentioned that the site is customizable to our campus. At the end of the magazine, they list all the events happening on our campus.

Senate Adviser Mathew Brust, associate professor of physical and life sciences, asked the senators to pay attention to the fact that if they unsubscribed to the service and decide to subscribe again later, they will have to pay the same set-up fee that they had to pay last year.

Deena Kennell, Senate adviser, said the penetration rate was 69 percent, which means 69 percent of the 1,700 students went deeper into the site than just opening it.

Molly O’Connell, CAB vice-chair of finances, mentioned that at most events on campus the attendance is usually about 200-300 students, but this magazine is reaching 1,700 students.

After much discussion, Jones said that the issue was not that students aren’t getting the material, or if the material is useful, but rather that the material is not being advertised enough.

Senators agreed that the advertising for the service needs improved.

Senator Curtis Stevens said that this service is anonymous and that’s something to be taken into consideration.

Pat Beu, senior director of student affairs, drew reference to The Eagle saying, “If I took a poll of students who have read The Eagle recently, I’m likely to find a chunk that haven’t read it, or I’m likely to find, if I ask their opinion of what they find in The Eagle, I’m likely to get all kinds of things.”

“I personally think our money would be better spent having The Eagle put in a health column or something of the sort,” Senator Jo Merrill said.

Senator Tierra Snyder suggested to have counselors, science professors, or nutrition professors write articles to put in a column.

Hurley rebutted that saying that it’s not the job of the professors or counselors to write articles. She said that the articles in the magazine are funded through scientific research and backing.

“Asking someone to write something and says, ‘Oh, yea, sleep is good for you. Please sleep more,’ in The Eagle is not going to do something without the actual backing,” Hurley said. She said the articles would take a lot of attention and they are national polls.

“If we have the counselors or students write it, it’s not always going to come up to be the best,” Hurley said. “It’s going to be subpar, and we want the best articles out there to show our students that we care about their health.”

Brust also commented on the idea of faculty writing, saying he personally would not have time to write articles.

“I will guarantee there is not a faculty member that could hold a candle to the kind of information provided,” Brust said.

Senator Josh Mayer, Merrill, Senator Mauro Ovando, Snyder, Sullivan, and Senator Syerra Wycoff Bagshaw abstained.

Ovando declined to comment on abstaining, but the rest of the senators explained their actions.

“I abstained because by the time I would have voted, even if everyone after me voted yes, my vote would not have mattered,” Mayer said. He explained that he plans to do more research on the renewing of the subscription.

“I abstained because I could see the value in Student Health 101, but I was not sure it was really what the students want,” Merrill said. “I knew that voting no would lead to unneeded conflict in Senate. There was heated discussion on both sides of the debate, and I did not want to aggravate those who believe in funding the magazine more than they already were by the end of the discussion.”

Snyder and Wycoff Bagshaw mimicked the statement about the value of the magazine.

“I was hesitant to throw in my agreement until we had a plan in play for our advertising to improve,” Wycoff Bagshaw said.

Before the allocation passed, Student Senate had $98,468.61 remaining in unallocated funds

Student Senate is looking for people interested in reviving a second animal shelter in Chadron because the animal shelter is being overrun. If interested, please contact Senate.

Chris Green encouraged senators to attend Paul Wesselman’s presentation from 7 – 8 p.m., Nov. 12.

A General Assembly for Senate and clubs on campus will be at 6 p.m., Nov. 13 to discuss major projects.

A Senate Workshop will be from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Nov. 14 to deliberate on the roles of senators.

Hurley said that senators will be required to eat dinner with two of the three speakers presenting at the leadership conference.

Analise Garland, an RA in Brooks, and RLA are looking for help to fund a speaker to come to CSC next semester. The speaker, Jamie Utt, speaks on consent, diversity, and leadership. He would be doing two workshops for the price of one. His booking fee is $5,000 plus travel and lodging. They are not sure how much funding RLA will be able to provide but if they don’t get help, they most likely won’t have the funds for the speaker. RLA has not yet asked Senate for an allocation but will be looking at how much help with the funding they will need.