Various speakers addressed the Students’ Association, which approved club constitutions, commemorations, ordinances and an amendment.
Open Forum
Shari Landmark, the chief wellness officer, and Mariah Weber, the director of recreation and fitness from the Miller Wellness Center, talked to the senate about how General Activity Fund (GAF) dollars are spent for the building and the Rabbit Ride program.
Landmark explained how GAF supports $4.04 spent for the building’s health clinic and counseling center, how $4.20 goes to group fitness, operation, intramural/esports and sport clubs and how $6.59 is for two building bonds from 2006 and 2008.
Group fitness has been up this year, with “record-high participation.”
“We had a little over 10,000 registrations in fall of ‘24, and this is an increase of 39%,” said Weber.
The Wellness Center has used Telemed counseling, which will be called “Better Mynd,” next year and will offer 30-minute counseling sessions for students.
It was also reported from Landmark that the last year’s implementation of “Walk-in-Wednesdays” at the Student Health Clinic, where students can drop by the clinic to be seen by a nurse practitioner from 8-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. are up 8.2%.
Weber, who has overseen the Rabbit Ride operation for about 15 years, gives free transportation to anyone impaired, or anyone who wants a safe ride home.
For just this year, the service has provided over 18,000 rides and on average receives 650 riders every weekend, according to Weber.
“Typical year, I want to say, can range anywhere from 14,000 all the way up to 22,000,” Weber said. “So, we’re definitely right on track to probably be at that 22,000 this year.”
The wellness center launched a “State of Wellbeing” podcast in February 2024, with anxiety being the most popular topic out of 38 others.
They also have a “CashCourse” program about financial literacy for students, which falls under their Financial Wellbeing of their “University Wellbeing Dimensions of Wellness.”
An upgrade will be coming to the CashCourse this June that will include financial information for students at the university.
“It’s some really great information [on there],” Landmark said. “Whether it’s you’re going to live off-campus maybe next year–what does rent look like? What about when I graduate? What is a 401k?”
These platforms are free for students to use and are located on the Miller Wellness Center website, Landmark said.
One change coming to the gym is implementing “sensory-friendly hours” from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., during which no music will be playing inside the wellness center.
“We have the music off for people that want a little quiet time,” Landmark said.
Landmark said that they will be restocking Jack’s Cupboard with Aunt Flo products for this next year as well, which will be located in the restrooms in the main hallway of the building.
There is also talk of revamping the idea of a tobacco-free campus by tackling vaping, and the possible change of academic assignment due dates/times to earlier.
Then, Brianna Doran, a Brookings city council member returned to SA to give updates on questions they had at a previous meeting she didn’t have answers for.
The city will be doing a “Spring Bulky Item-Pickup” April 9 through April 13, where people can place trash items on their curbs. People can receive free dumping through city residence of the landfill.
As for parks and recreation, they will be renovating a skate park, and programs like pickleball, basketball and volleyball will be expanded as well.
Last, Doran said that there will be an update about the downtown businesses affected by the fire that was at Brost’s Fashions, last December, which will be discussed at the next Brookings City Council meeting.
A few new clubs were approved by the senate as well.
One of them was the SD Association for the Education of Young Children Club, which is aimed to promote the Early Childhood Education (ECE) major and the importance of it and working with children.
“I just want to commend all of you for starting this,” said Senator Blake Gibney. “I think this is a really good way to keep your major thriving.”
Another was the approval of the SDSU Concrete Industry Management Club.
What makes this club different, though, is that it officially recognizes the use of concrete specifically in our everyday lives, and spreads awareness of the concrete industry.
The final club was the Collegiate Music Teachers Association to share the importance of music through teaching others.
What makes the club different is that it has students of different majors, with 14 people interested in joining.
University Program Council (UPC) said that they will have a Spa Night event on April 3, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Jacks’ Place in the Student Union, where attendees can make sugar scrubs, shower steamers and receive back massages.
Gibney on the Academic Affairs Committee said changes will be made to majors and minors as well as who can complete assessments of courses.
Unfinished Business
Two commemorations were approved at the meeting, including a commemoration to recognize John Mahlan, human resource assistant for the SDSU Army ROTC Military Science Program, who served 31 years in the South Dakota Army National Guard and a decade at the university. (Commemoration 24-10-C).
“Mr. Mahlan is a rock of the SDSU program for over a decade now and a direct impact on the commission for officers, myself included,” Gibney said.
The other was to recognize April 2025 as Autism Awareness Month (Commemoration 24-11-C).
An ordinance that was established to have the senate revisit and establish the Ex-Officio position of the Honors College for the 2025-26 term.
One amendment was also approved that reconstructed the Diversity Chair to Diversity Liaison position on the senate that made alterations such as having a minimum of seven office hours a week. (Amendment 24-3-A).
New Business
Amendment 24-4-A will be revised and voted on at the next SA meeting regarding the duties for finance chair on the senate.
Announcements
Senator At-Large Emma Peterson announced that 43 cups have been used from the Aunt Flo program, with the products located at Jacks’ Cupboard.
Adjournment
The senate went into executive session and excused anyone other than senators to end the meeting.
