Southwest Minnesota State University’s Feb. 7 Student Association Senate meeting hinged on necessary improvements to many current policies.
Student Body President Kyle Berndt explained his plan for letting students use Twitter to voice their complaints and suggestions. Berndt is the owner of the account @SMSUProbs. Recently, he has fielded complaints about the academic calendar, weight room, and library hours. He hopes to see students tweet their ideas and grievances at the account.
“People use Twitter to complain about stuff anyways,” he said. “Using this account would hopefully open that up a little bit and expand our social media presence.” Berndt plans to approach administration with his proposal in the near future.
Student Activities Committee Coordinator Shawna Grupe announced that things had been quiet for her organization lately. The organization will be sponsoring laser tag in the lower Conference Center on March 13, and was responsible for bringing hip-hop violinist Josh Vietti to campus on Feb. 7. Grupe also announced that she would not be returning to her position for the ‘13/’14 school year. Another student has already expressed interest in her position, and will be shadowing her at future meetings.
Judicial Board Coordinator Michael Hanna brought up new options for student government voting for students. It was suggested that a single voting area be used and equipped with either computers or iPads. In theory, one voting location on campus would better control for unethical campaign tactics.
Finance and Special Issues Chair Alex Flores reported on the possibility of breaking up the “big 14” SMSU clubs. There is currently no formal policy in place dictating how much funding each campus club should receive. The Student Senate generally agreed that it made sense to allow other clubs the chance to feel more prioritized.
Finally, Student Services Chair Lucas Tietz reported on his findings from the Office of Student Success. The Office got in touch with students who recently transferred away from SMSU to better understand their reasons for leaving.
Among them, Tietz said, were that the town of Marshall was “smelly,” that there was too much drinking on campus, and that the town and campus were too small. Vice President Josh Anderson pointed out that “people give the same reason for leaving that they give for coming here in the first place, that this is a small campus in a rural area. We don’t feel that there’s much we can do about that complaint,” he said.
