SGA passes two bills in Tuesday’s meeting

Lashana Harney

The Student Government Association meeting on Tuesday welcomed more student spectators and swore in three new senators. 

Senate seats are still open. SGA President Nicki Seay said election applications are available in the SGA office and will be online this week. The applications are due Sept. 15. 

The issue of parking, discussed during the last meeting, was brought up again. Seay said WKU has lost parking spots this year, but 150 parking spots are available in the alumni parking garage and around 200 parking spots are available at South Campus for commuters.

“I know parking has been a huge issue lately,” Seay said. “If you try the South Campus lot and you really like it, you can turn in your commuter parking permit and get the South Campus permit and get $40 back.” 

Executive Vice President Nolan Miles said there are campus committees with open seats available to students, such as one seat for the University Calendar Committee, two seats for the Parking Ticket Appeals Board, one seat for the Library Advisory Council and one seat for the Potter College Academic Complaints Committee. 

LGBTQ rights were an issue brought up at the meeting. Chief of Staff Seth Church said the topic was prevalent. 

“It’s an issue we are going to have to tackle at some point,” Church said. 

Speaker of the Senate Jay Todd Richey represented SGA at the Bowling Green Fairness Coalition.

“There is not legal protection for LGBT members of our community,” he said. “So, one person would go from student government to show that we were on board.”

Director of Academic and Student Affairs Barrett Greenwell said all Study Abroad and winter term scholarship applications are due Oct. 17. The applications will be available online this week. 

“The main problem was that the deadlines were so late in the semester,” said Greenwell. “It takes us a couple of weeks to grade them and then we show up the last week with tons and tons of things to process.”

The Campus Improvements Committee was split into subcommittees in order to further address issues regarding campus quality. 

“We have a lot of tasks at hand this semester,” said Campus Improvements Committee Chair Tyler Scaff. “We have at least 12 things to cover by the end of this year.”

Scaff said that the committee plans to conduct a survey to ask students what they would like to improve on campus. 

One student speaker said with the removal of Topper Cafe, many students are left with no option for using extra meal swipes on Sunday nights. 

A representative from Share-a-Swipe, an organization that allows students to donate unused meal plans to give food to children, shared his concern that because Topper Cafe ceases to exist, the organization’s partnership with local schools has suffered. There are less donations since students can no longer purchase nonperishable items with a meal swipe.

The SGA budget was passed for $138,500.

Two bills were passed during the meeting. 

The first, Funding for the Preston Membership Voucher Program, will allocate $1,050 to the Preston Membership Voucher Program. This will allow 60 part-time students to obtain a membership to Preston at half the cost. Instead of a $35 semester fee, part-time students will only pay $17.50 a semester. 

The second bill to pass, after the bylaws were suspended, was Funding for the Identification Vouchers Program. SGA will allocate $500 for the creation of the program, which will cover half the cost of a $20 WKU ID card for 50 students. This voucher will only be available to students who have not previously lost an ID card.