In the last meeting of the semester, Ball State University Student Government Association senators passed two pieces of legislation and approved three people to Student Senate.
One piece of legislation would integrate the services of the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid and the Ball State Bookstore. With this collaboration, students with excess financial aid could set aside a portion of the money to purchase books and supplies the week before the semester starts.
The other piece of legislation would send students' course registration to the bookstore. This capability would provide students the chance to see what books go with the courses they requested and allow them to either order the books at that time or compare the prices with other bookstores.
Michelle Voss, At-Large Caucus and Student Safety Committee chairwoman and author of the legislations, said she was pleased with the questions senators asked. Some of the new senators do not know the process and what legislation does, she said, so it was good they learned.
"I think it's the right thing that Senate passed them because it's a good thing for students," Voss said.
President Frank Hood said SGA tried to get something similar to what these pieces of legislation would do during Team Lisec's 2006-2007 term, but neither the university nor the bookstore wanted to do it at that time.
"Times have changed, and they're interested in it now," he said.
Voss said the financial aid office and the bookstore would work out specific details. She and Hood also said no specific time frame has been set for when this could begin, but because the university expressed interest in doing this it could be soon.
Hood said these two pieces of legislation were just one thing in a list of accomplishments SGA had done since his slate took office five weeks ago.
"I believe we're doing great," he said. "We've established a cabinet with some of the best people in their field, we've created a credentials board and we've added 16 people to senate. Of those, nine have no senate experience."
Hood also said senators have participated in programming and events, sponsored the Carnival, began getting advertising space for other organizations in the Daily News. He said SGA participated in two preview days to get high school students interested in Ball State organizations, elected a president pro-tempore and elected caucus and committee chairpersons.
"By now, a president pro-tempore and caucus and committee chairmen elections usually take place," Hood said, "but passing legislation, adding 16 people to senate that quickly and promoting events and SGA isn't usually expected in the first few weeks."
He said this summer he, other slate members and senators would be busy working on platform items.
Also during SGA, senators approved Brad Gottschlich, Andrea Watts and Nathan Meeks to Student Senate and committee chairpersons gave their reports.
Below is a breakdown of what each committee discussed:
Academic AffairsChairwoman Katie Kovac said the committee members discussed ideas for the upcoming year and would start working on Campus Alliance's platform item of computerizing the writing competency exam.
Community/Environmental AffairsChairwoman Leah Ruble said committee members worked on ideas for next year. Ideas included getting bat houses on campus to fix Ball State's bat problems, checking to make sure the kiosks are getting fixed, getting another campus clean-up day so there would be one per semester and sponsoring a booth or planting a tree as an annual event for Earth Day.
Diversity and Multicultural AffairsChairwoman Shaetonna Jackson said committee members wanted to work more with multicultural groups next year to get the groups exposed more on campus.
Governmental Affairs and Student AwarenessChairman Timothy Dykiel wished everyone good luck during finals week.
Student SafetyChairwoman Voss said committee members discussed how to get better lighting at certain smoking areas around campus.
Student ServicesChairwoman Nicole Akey said the committee received a new member.
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