The Student Government Association held its first meeting of the semester on Tuesday evening. The meeting did not include any unfinished business.

However, the meeting did serve as an opportunity to welcome back the student government after winter break and briefly discuss the upcoming semester. 

After Jay Todd Richey, the speaker of the senate, called the meeting to order SGA President Nicki Taylor opened the meeting with a few announcements about new positions available.

The first of which is a new chair for the Cultural Diversity and Affairs Committee, which was created last fall.

The committee hears issues dealing with minorities on campus. 

Seth Church, SGA chief of staff, previously held the position. The position is only open to members in SGA. 

“I’ll be keeping my involvement with the committee to make sure it keeps up the good work,” Church said. 

SGA is also looking for a new public relations director. Interviews were held Tuesday night.

SGA also appointed Megan Skaggs as the director of Academic and Student Affairs. 

Taylor announced that she plans on having a meeting with President Gary Ransdell, Howard Bailey, vice president of Student Affairs and  Bryan Russell, chief facilities officer, to discuss the student legal services as well as the topic of alcohol on campus. She plans to report back with what happens at the next meeting.

Richey spoke about how he hopes the senators will take initiative and listen to the campus community. 

“You were elected into this position, and we will be having elections at the end of this semester,” Richey said. “It’d be very wise to just speak to people about what concerns they have on campus— what issues they’d like addressed.” 

Tyler Scaff, campus improvements committee chair, said that his highest priority for him is the Safety Walk, in which SGA representatives and WKU officials inspect the campus for locations in need of improvements, regarding safety. 

Toward the end of the meeting, Andrea Garr-Barnes, director of the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, was introduced as a guest speaker.

Garr-Barnes said that she isn’t seeing anyone from SGA in her office and requested a stronger partnership with SGA. 

“I want to talk about the things that you want to see on this campus,” she said. “I want you thinking that if I had a choice between money and people, I would take the people collaboration.”

The next SGA meeting will be held on Feb. 3, where a resolution regarding a limited smoking campus is planned to be discussed and voted on.