The Student Government Association (SGA) passed two new resolutions to use the rest of the outstanding money left in its budget on Monday, April 7.
The first resolution was to set aside money from the student activity fee to buy heaters to use in Village Park and the parking lot adjacent to West Penn during the colder months.
“The student activity fee is designed to enhance student life by funding different initiatives and improving campus engagement and wellbeing,” President Kyle MacLaughlin said. “The cold weather that we experience for the majority of the time we are here obviously limits that.”
SGA specified these locations as high traffic spots that are helpful for socializing and overall productivity. They decided to set aside $2000 from the remaining budget. This money is to be used for the purchase of heaters, MacLaughlin said.
The second resolution was the summer funding resolution.
Treasurer Elliott Geary said this resolution’s general purpose is to provide funding for the new SGA president and vice president before the new funding of the semester goes into effect. It can be used to accomplish summer projects, plan training and more. The decided number of funds is $3000.
Michael Gieseke, dean of student life, said if there is money left over from the resolution by August 31, it will go back to the university and not into the student activity fund.
“It doesn’t roll over because it can’t, legally,” Gieske said. “We can’t keep it because then you all could say, ‘We’re not going to spend money this year so we can spend it on something better next year,’ and then this year’s students wouldn’t be able to spend the money they paid into.”
Additionally, MacLaughlin discussed the meeting he and Geary had with Interim Provost Shari Payne. The main topics during the meeting were the new trainings for the heads of departments and a new system put into place in the University Advising Center, MacLaughlin said.
The next SGA meeting held at 3:15 p.m. on April 14 will be the last of this semester, and the people who were elected into positions for next year will be sworn in on that day.
