Senate approves new senator, student trustee candidates

Senators approved Josie Semroska as a B.E.A.M.S.S. senator. Thirteen senators voted yes and one—Sen. Makenzy Petty—abstained from voting. There are still three liberal arts positions, one Eagle Ridge position, and one at large position open on Senate.
Senators voted to approve three student trustee candidates to send to Nebraska’s Governor Pete Ricketts for approval. All the senators approved except Sen. Ashley Goad abstained. The names cannot be released until the governor approves them.
Campus Improvement Committee Chair Carly Slaght said that the committee researched different options for desk chairs to replace the ones at the computer desks in the Student Center. Wal-Mart has chairs that will cost $42.99 each, with a total of $515.88 for 12 chairs.
Shellie Johns, conferencing coordinator, suggested a few companies for the committee to look at getting chairs from, and the committee voted against all of those companies except KI Furniture because they were waiting on a quote from that company. The quote, which came in Tuesday afternoon, is $7,082.40 for 12 chairs.
Senate President Katrina Hurley said that the city pool has contacted Student Senate for another $10,000 allocation. At the Nov. 21, 2016, meeting Senate allocated $10,000 to the Aquatics Center. At that meeting senators agreed they would hold off on allocating the additional $10,000 the Aquatic Center requested until the funds for this semester were brought in, so Senate would know how much money they had to work with for this semester.
The Spring Daze Committee passed out designs for Spring Daze tank tops, T-shirts, trucker caps, and bracelets. The bracelets will be used as prizes for the first people to sign up. The committee also passed out a budget that will be discussed at the open forum at 5 p.m. today. The total budget is for $6,046.31: 25 staff T-shirts, $340.66; 100 volunteer T-shirts, $740.79; 350 general public T-shirts, $1,778.89; 300 men’s tank tops, $1,549.97; 200 bandannas, $602.53; and 25 leather bracelets, $199.75. Last year’s allocation was $428.76 more than the total for this year.
Senate Vice President of Finance Lukas Klueber reported $45,648.33 in unallocated funds. He also said that the Activity Fee Board budget packets were sent out last week and will be due Friday, March 3. The packets include information of what will cause penalties in funding. AFB members at Senate stressed that late packets will receive penalties. Activity Fee Board members will host office hours in the Senate Office in the Student Center 3-4 p.m. Monday, 10-11 a.m. Tuesday, 2-4 p.m. Wednesday, 10-11 a.m. Thursday, and 3-4 p.m. Friday.
The Health and Wellbeing Committee reported that they split into two committees—fall program committee to plan a hygiene-focused committee for the fall semester and a spring program committee to plan a mental-health-focused committee for the spring 2018 semester.
Sen. Cody Cooper said that he is working on putting together a program for suicide awareness and mental health awareness and suggested a few programs Student Senate should look at bringing to campus in the future.
Alyssa Bauer, student activities and leadership graduate student, said that Cassie Mitchell, director of student activities and recreation; and Jessica Stodola, group fitness graduate assistant, is looking for a group fit instructor at the NPAC. The position is a paid internship and the NPAC is specifically looking for freshmen or sophomores who will “be around for a while,” Pat Beu, senior director of student affairs, said.
Petitions for senator reelection are due noon Monday, March 13 to Chief Justice Samantha Merrill.
Hurley said that the recycling bins have arrived and will be put around campus and senators signed up for which buildings they will be responsible for cleaning out each week.
Sen. Petty brought attention to Chadron State’s Facebook page, saying it is out of date. Senators brainstormed issues they see with the page and Beu, reminded senators to come up with suggestions, not just critiques.
Hurley said that there was good discussion at the open forum last week about the feminine hygiene initiative, which is working toward putting feminine hygiene products in the bathrooms around campus for women to use for free. For more information on the open forum last week, please see related story, on csceagle.com.
This week’s open forum will feature renewing the Guidebook app, the pool allocation, Spring Daze, and the Feminine Hygiene Initiative.