A new housing scholarship was introduced, first-year senators were sworn in and a remaining seat was filled at the first Student Government Association meeting of the Fall semester Tuesday. 

Louis Gonzalez, a sophomore biology major from Kansas City, Missouri, presented  resolution SR 24/25-02 to create a new housing scholarship for students in need. 

The previous housing scholarship was abolished Feb. 27, by resolution SR 23/24 – 03 sponsored by Jackson Galloway. The resolution passed after an amendment was added by former senator Rocco Hicks to reinstate it if they failed to pass a new scholarship resolution by the 2025/2026 election cycle. 

Gonzalez said he began writing this resolution with other senators before the old housing scholarship was abolished, writing the majority over the summer. He said he spoke with Natalie Eskew, executive director of housing, and Christina Kostick, director of financial aid and scholarships, while writing this resolution.  

In this meeting they discussed the grammar of the resolution, but they will be going over the content in the next meeting. 

“I’m in high hopes. I do believe it’s gonna pass. I think it’s specific enough. I don’t think it’s too much money for the Student Government Association to donate or even to grant as a scholarship to students that want it oh so dearly,” Gonzalez said. 

Gonzalez said the previous scholarship resolution was unstructured and took so much money from SGA every year that it wouldn’t be sustainable in years to come. 

Before the scholarship was introduced the deans of each college met with the senators representing or a part of that college. 

“It’s just an opportunity for all of our senators to break off with the deans of the college that they either represent or the college they are a part of. Just to get some kind of feedback of how those colleges are going and let the deans know if they’re having issues about things with that college or certain things about the majors,” Micayla McGowen, senior marketing major from East End, Arkansas and president of SGA said. 

After the deans left the meeting seven new senators were sworn in. 

Lindsay Bateman, a senior pre-professional biology major from Paragould, filled one out of the two remaining senior senate seats.  

“I have a lot of peers in SGA and I think it’s a great opportunity for me to get involved with my community,” Bateman said. 

Bateman is involved in other leadership roles like being the ambassador for the Veterinarian College of Science and Math, ambassador for Red Wolves for St. Jude, vice president of the Pre-Professional Biology Club, said she thought she could provide a different perspective for the senate. 

“I think collaborating with some of the organizations that I am involved in would be really great,” Bateman said. 

Carly Low, exercise science major from Fort Smith, Arkansas, was one of the first-year senators sworn in. 

Low said she wanted to join SGA because she wanted to be involved in making A-State a fun, healthy and inclusive environment. 

“I wanted to support the initiatives that foster community, promote wellbeing and enhance the overall community campus experience for all students,” Low said. 

McGowen said for this fall semester she wants more creative and productive ideas.

 “I really want to start with coming up with so many different ideas and I know we have a lot of new senators coming up with ideas. I have some of my own and I really think that if we can get the ball rolling and really start going and throwing at some of those ideas would be great,” McGowen said.

About the senator meeting the deans: “It’s just an opportunity for all of our senators to break off with the deans of the college that they either represent or the college they are a part of. Just to get some kind of feedback of how those colleges are going and let the deans know if they’re having issues about things with that college or certain things about the majors.” McGowen

“Just starting those conversations of making sure of things are being done and that things need to be done with those respective colleges,” McGowen said.

Shelby Russom, Photo Editor,  contributed to this report. 

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