The Student Government Association (SGA) granted the Office of Student Life (OSL) $6,000 during their meeting on March 10th.
The OSL, represented by Jenna Jenson and Anna Walsh, made a short presentation to the SGA regarding student transportation to Virginia to support Augustana’s men’s basketball team.
Last year, the OSL provided transportation, hotels and tickets to an away game for Augustana students that totalled to $100 per student. This provided students with a safer method of travel, as well as providing those without travel options to see the game. With this event, the OSL lost around $7,000, but the tickets sold out entirely within three days, including a large waiting list.
Wanting to repeat last year’s event, OSL wanted to provide the students the same deal. However, because of changes within the OSL, Ken Brill, Director of Student Life, originally came to David Sommers, President of the SGA, and the SGA to co-operate the trip.
The $6,000 from the SGA would only be used for the transportation of the students. The OSL would then provide $4,000 for hotels. The SGA could only help with transportation, as their constitution says they cannot provided any money for hotels and accommodations for events.
Quickly after the OSL’s presentation, a vote was held and the motion was passed nearly unanimously. Regarding the grant, Sommers had said, “This is one of those out-of-the-ordinary circumstances where OSL cannot actually fund this event due to a lack of funds.”
After the vote, the SGA moved on to announce other projects from committees.
Among them was Senator Speechley’s proposal, which received a lot of attention, that, “The SGA…is going to clean the slough. I don’t know if you all have noticed, but with all the snow gone, there is a lot, and I mean a lot of trash.”
While receiving support, Speechley continued on the subject and stated, “I don’t think our community deserves that… It should be an incredible, beautiful sight.”
Regarding the upcoming election season, Jackie Jastrzebski, the Vice President of the SGA, made some announcements. She explained that the school’s election season was going to start on Sunday, and before then they will not know who the candidates are.
On Monday, March 14th, the SGA would be holding a meet-and-greet in the Gavle rooms to allow students to get to know the candidates. The elections would be widely advertised on campus to try and gain students’ attention. There would be many mentions of the elections on social media as well.
The SGA moved on give two awards, the Outstanding Organization and the Outstanding Student Leader of the Year.
The nominations for Outstanding Organization were Habitat for Humanity, the Office for Student Life, Alpha Phi Omega, Best Buddies, Viking Pups, the Augustana Observer, Latinos Unidos, and Camp Kesem.
Camp Kesem was awarded Outstanding Organization of the Year.
The among nominations for Outstanding Student Leader were Anna Walsh, Tayvian Johnson, Keith Sands, Sara Tomasello, Jordan Johnson, and Anna Dominguez.
Anna Walsh was awarded Outstanding Student of the Year.
In response to the award, Walsh commented saying she was very honored to be chosen as the recipient of the award. “My involvement on campus with the Office of Student Life, Campus Ministries, PepsiCo, greek life and academics has provided me with ample opportunities to grow my leadership skills,” said Walsh. “I credit my development as a student leader to my wonderful bosses, professors and mentors at Augustana and could never thank them enough for all of their support.”