The Student Government Association allocated $500 to the “Steven ‘Brent’ Chumbley Student-Athlete Impact” Scholarship at Tuesday’s weekly meeting.
WKU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Brent Chumbley died on Jan. 30. Chumbley assumed the director position in 2019.
Senator Kaison Barton presented the bill while accompanied by Chumbley’s daughter, Alexandria Chumbley.
“We have created the scholarship to continue his legacy of helping those who dedicate a significant amount of time to sports,” Barton said. “I want his name to continue to be spoken and be associated with the development of the students.”
After a motion to allocate $1000 to the scholarship, Legislative Operations Committee Chair Caden Lucas noted the limited funds left in the Legislative Discretionary budget for the remainder of the semester.
“I think moving it up to $1,000 is a little rash to do right here, right now,” Lucas said. “I’m not opposed to it eventually being that amount…just keeping the bill amount at $500 is probably the more financially responsible thing for us to do in the current moment.”
Three other bills passed during the meeting, including Bill 2-25-F to allocate $200 to support the annual Queer Student Union (QSU) Prom.
“It’s (the bill) really timely because it feels really hard for especially people in that community to feel heard and seen,” Ismail said. “The Queer Student Union has provided a safe space for those people, and I think it is difficult right now and it feels like they’re under attack.”
Five senators proposed bill 3-25-F, allocating $350 from the Legislative Discretionary Budget to an SGA March Madness event.
The event will take place on Thursday, March 13 on South Lawn, featuring a cornhole tournament, free food, a raffle basket and tabling from different registered student organizations. The money raised from team entries from the cornhole tournament and the raffle entries at the event will be donated in full to the Heather Strode Scholarship fund.
“I feel like so many people will see this cause and be compelled to (participate),” Ogden College Senator Hadley Whipple said.
Bill 5-25-S allocated $50 from the Legislative Discretionary budget for a Random Acts of Kindness Week event planned by Potter College of Arts & Letters Senator Sophia Bryant.
Resolution 3-25-S passed for SGA to support the Campus Improvements and Sustainability Committees’ Campus Safety Walk on March 3.
“We do this every year,” Junior Senator Rush Robinson said. “We just need to pass this resolution so that we can get it sent to the faculty senate [and] hopefully get a little bit more awareness.”
WKU Director of Athletics Todd Stewart also attended the meeting as a guest speaker. Stewart spoke about upcoming changes to NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) that will take place in athletics.
Starting “July 1 next year” athletic departments of universities can directly share revenue with players, according to Stewart.
“The Power Four can actually share $20.5 million with their athletes starting next year,” Stewart said. “We will not do that. We provide a lot to our athletes, but we don’t have the revenue.”
