Open Forum
Kevin Fullerton, director for Office of Career Development addressed the Senate on Monday regarding goals of its department and sought advice to improve efficiency for students within the university.
The Office of Career Development is located at the University Student Union and provides drop-in hours along with appointments available through the ‘Handshake’ website for students. They offer services for students such as resume coaching, interview preparation, personal statements, career and major exploration.
Fullerton informed the Senate about staffing within the Office of Career Development and addition of new members
“I want you all to know that we’re almost fully staffed,” Fullerton said. “The implications for that is going to be more services for all of you and more consistent offerings that we would have for our students.”
Fullerton further described goals set by the Office of Career Development that align with the strategic plan of the university. These goals include hosting career fairs and events to support all degree programs, develop co-curricular professional development programs for all students, and commit to fostering events that help the university work towards R1 and a sense of belonging for all students on campus.
“For example, our career fairs and the efforts we put forth within the colleges have a high impact on students and bring a lot of employers on campus and we want to continue doing that,” Fullerton said. “We also want to expand because we know there are some gaps within the campus and certain colleges that don’t necessarily utilize the career services.”
Fullerton discussed goals of connecting with Sioux Falls businesses to create a Sioux Falls specific job fair, curate events for different degree programs that do not fit the career fair model, design fundraising programs to support new programming and services and to implement artificial intelligence (AI) software within career services offerings.
“The thing that I’m also working on and watching this week and really excited about is ‘career champions network training program’ for faculty and staff where I’m going to help with strategies on embedding career conversations,” Fullerton said.
Committee and Staff Reports
Vice-President Hayden Bentz and President Trinity Peterson met with Provost Dennis Hedge and Vice-Provost Teresa Seefeldt during their monthly meeting to discuss general education courses and better implementation of freshmen seminar courses.
Government Affairs Chair Michael Garofalo informed the Senate about the update on House Bill 1178 and the bill being amended along with Senate Bill 45.
“Legislature has been very busy with getting new things to think about as we discuss it tonight,” Garofalo said.
The University Program Council (UPC) will hire eight new coordinators for the next school year and applications are due on Friday, March 1.
Unfinished Business
Senators brought up discussions for Resolution 23-8-R, which saw the introduction of Senate Bill 45 to appropriate a sum of approximately $6 million to the Board of Regents (BOR) for the purpose of establishing a Center for Quantum Information Science and Technology. The motion is currently tabled until further clarification.
Senators also voted to approve Resolution 23-9-R. The resolution sought Students’ Association support for Senate Bill 1 to “expand eligibility for reduced tuition benefits for certain school districts and Head Start employees at Board of Regents institutions to school counselors.”
“This doesn’t affect us directly but it will help to ensure that our K-12 students who would join universities are more adapted to mental health,” Garofalo said.
New Business
SA introduced seven new amendments (Amendment 23-7-A through Amendment 23-13-A). The resolutions revolve around amending clerical spelling errors, revising wording in removal process of senators and advisers, adviser term length, adviser removal proceedings, review of senate advisers and adviser duties in the SA bylaws.
Peterson informed the Senate that these amendments came from the Advisor Bylaws Taskforce and would be discussed during their next meeting.
The senate also closed the slate for President and Vice President nominations after noticing no nominees for four straight SA meetings, making both Peterson and Bentz the only nominees for the respective positions.
The Senate nominated seven senators and four ex-offico’s for the ‘Senator of the Year Award’ and ‘Ex-Officio Member of the Year Award’ respectively.
Announcements
Chief of Staff Benjamin Connor asked students to email him to submit petitions if they wished to run for Senate position.
Peterson informed the Senate about a transition meeting to be held on Monday, April 8 as senators would end their term as the 116th Senate and would observe swearing-in of new senators.