Students on the SMSU Forensic Team may soon be able to have priority registration. Currently, SMSU athletes have priority registration.

Director of Forensics Ben Walker created the priority registration petition after hearing that athletes received the same rights, citing that the Forensics Team has many of the same conflicts Athletics had.

“I’d like to note that I have not received any official notice that forensics priority registration is in effect,” Walker said. “We wrote up a proposal in spring 2016 and sent it to Dean Jan Loft for advisement. She told us it must go through the student government.”

The proposal was approved by the student senate in October and was passed to the President’s Cabinet for final discussion. Walker has not heard back about its status as of Nov. 14.

The forensics season runs from September to April. They traditionally attend tournaments on Tuesdays during the year and also travel on Fridays to go to weekend tournaments and occasionally miss class on these days. Additionally, students then return late on Sunday night and occasionally on Monday, which may conflict with Monday morning classes.

“We know this is a hot button issue on campus,” Walker said. “We have a lot of the same issues as Athletics so we wanted to see if this was something that would be accepted. We are just seeking a way to make it a little easier for students to succeed in their classes while still getting all the benefits that come with being on an intercollegiate speech and debate team.”

Currently, MSU Mankato offers priority registration for Forensics Team members in order to alleviate scheduling conflicts with travel. Under Walker’s proposal, a student must be enrolled in Forensics for at least two semesters and have fewer than 70 completed credits at the time of registration in order to qualify for priority registration. The proposal estimates that these conditions will impact five students on the team.