Senators heard reports from student organizations and three new senators were sworn in at the Jan. 22 Students’ Association meeting.
Public Forum
Mayor of Brookings Oepke Niemeyer and City Manager Paul Briseno addressed the senate on the plan of the 18-acre land located East of the interstate and North of Sixth St. Niemeyer informed the senate that ALDI would plan to acquire 10.8 acres while the remaining land would consist of a convenience store type gas station. Briseno encouraged people to vote Tuesday, Jan. 30 to approve or deny the amendment put in place.
Joseph Cassady, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences addressed the senate about the decision made recently to enclose the SDSU Dairy Farm. Cassady announced that the dairy manufacturing plant and Davis Dairy Bar would still remain functional.
GAF Strategic Plan
Blake Pulse, head of the GAF Strategic planning committee presented a “rough draft” of the GAF strategic plan that will set the rates for the General Activity Fee and where the money will be given until 2030.
Pulse explained that he wanted to open the floor to people in the room who have to vote on the plan in a couple of weeks to hear what their priorities are before it reaches the Senate floor for a vote.
“This is very important because it sets the tone and really impacts not just us, but students until 2030 and beyond.” Pulse said. “I would like to not have to amend it a bunch on the floor if we can address the concerns now.”
Items that were looking at an increase per credit hour are student organizations, which will increase by $1.15, student health, which will increase by $0.51 and the Wellness Center, which will increase by $1 to allow for expansion and increasing operation costs.
Items that were looking to decrease are fees to the Student Union, going down by $2.58, and transportation, which includes Rabbit Ride, going down by $0.12.
Pulse underlined the fact that all of this is subject to change and that the steering committee wants to hear feedback from the senators moving forward.
Pulse also pointed out that they recently discovered that the Union budget is looking tighter than what they originally thought.
“We’re gonna be trying, we’re gonna find some money in here for extra Union operation budgets,” Pulse said.
He also said that an additional discussion was had about pulling the School of Performing Arts out of the Unit III section of the budget which is the same pool that funds student organizations.
“We want to pull them out of that budget to be able to preserve student organization funding,” Pulse said. “We want to be able to pull them out to preserve the smaller organizations that are on that budget.”
Pulse also mentioned that they have discussed moving Jack’s Club Hub out of the Union budget and that there may be more interest in putting dollars towards transportation than previously thought.
Student Organization Reports
Assistant Director of Miller Wellness Center for Programs and Development Mariah Weber discussed the rabbit ride program during the Students’ Association meeting. Weber explained the initiation of the rabbit ride program and how it gets funded.
The rabbit ride program operates in collaboration with BATA Bus Friday and Saturday evenings between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. According to Weber, 9500 riders have used the program so far this year. Weber wishes to expand the program and advertise more frequently.
Gender and Sexuality Alliance plans to team up with the Trevor Project for a clothing drive again later this semester.
“(Last year) we were able to fit an entire suburban full of clothing boxes full of clothes,” B said. “Let me tell you that was a lot, they really appreciate it.”
The clothing drive will take place from March 18 through March 22. GSA will also be hosting a trivia night at the end of January, a movie night at the Market in March and a “paint and sip” event later in the semester.
Representatives of the SDSU Rodeo Club also addressed the senate.
President Alix VanderVoort detailed the numerous events that the team took part in over the past year in the Great Plains Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.
VanderVoort also shared that the team has 10 board member scholarships and 10 booster scholarships that are given to students that are involved in SDSU rodeo.
She also talked about the attendance at last year’s ‘Jackrabbit Stampede’, the only home rodeo the team has, saying that 200 students were in attendance last year.
“For the ‘Jackrabbit Stampede’ weekend, we had 273 (students) attend, even with the ice storm and ‘Little I’ being in town the same weekend,” VanderVoort said.
Other
Finance Chair Katie Neuhaus announced that the Finance Committee met last week and held open office hours to answer questions that student organizations may have when filling out the last two forms for the general budget.
Government Affairs Chair Michael Garofalo announced that the Government Affairs Committee met last week Friday and took two neutral stances on Senate bills that they have not gotten the final figures on yet and took a negative stance on a House bill that will be going on a resolution for the next meeting.
GSA announced that former GSA President Alyssa Gonzalez could not return to SDSU and that Vice President Lindsay Tull will assume the presidency as per the GSA constitution also announced that GSA will be having an emergency election soon to elect new members into the empty positions on the executive board.