The Student Government Association provided updates on ongoing resolutions on the Oct. 10 meeting. 

During staff reports, vice president Micayla McGowen, a junior marketing major from East End, Arkansas, discussed her upcoming resolution to update ER. 11.12.04, which allowed graduating senators the right to receive and wear SGA graduation cords. It passed in 2012.

McGowen is trying to update the resolution to be more modern.

“We’re just kind of modernizing those qualifications to make it fit more what students are doing now rather than back in 2012,” McGowen said. “Maybe change it with how many hours you have, how many absences you’ve had, you’re in SGA, how many years you’ve served. We haven’t figured out exactly what the qualifications are.”

McGowen said the idea for the resolution came from the idea after hearing senators did not get graduation cords. 

“It seemed a little weird for me considering that it is such a big organization on campus and it does make such a big impact on campus,” McGowen said. 

McGowen said she hopes to have the resolution completed by the next SGA meeting on Oct. 24. 

President pro temp Garrett Partain, a senior political science major from Lepanto, Arkansas, provided updates on the housing scholarship resolution passed last semester. SR 22/23-01 allowed five students to receive $1,100 each academic year to use toward housing.

The amendments are being added to make the scholarship more sustainable. One way proposed to make the scholarship sustainable includes providing funding to cover payments for students staying on campus over breaks. 

“(The amendment is) not getting done by the semester, but we allocate funds by the year. So I was talking to the president and basically we’re going to use the money that we have allocated for the housing scholarship right now. We’re creating an amendment to the resolution to free it up a little bit more,” Partain said. 

Partain said he will be working with the Student Philanthropy Council to get the infrastructure ready for the scholarship. Partain said this might involve using the same access portal as the Student Emergency Fund.

Partain said he is aiming to have the amendment completed by the end of the semester. 

Other announcements included Landon Valdez’s proposition for a series of guest speakers to speak to SGA in the new year. Topics include personal finance, love and sustainability. 

At the start of the meeting, staff members from the University Advising Center spoke to the senators about the You Made a Difference Advisor Award. In the past, the Advising Center has handled everything related to the award, but this year they wanted SGA to help promote the award.

Senators proposed having multiple nominees from different colleges, so students can recognize academic advisors who win the awards, as well as recognize multiple advisers.

“I’m in the College of Nursing and Health Professions and we have so many different advisors even for nursing alone that we’re in the same classes and need a different adviser,” said

Senator Emma Martin. “If you could maybe even make a smaller award for advisors great for this college and then maybe an overall one from there.”

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