Recap of March 29 SGA meeting
April 1, 2009
By Greta Myers
Public Affairs Reporter
Student Government Association President Ashley Rook and Senator for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jeff Long lobbied state and national congressional leaders to help lower the costs of textbooks and raise the amount allocated in Pell grants, Rook said during the March 29 SGA meeting.
Rook and Long’s efforts were a part of the United States Student Association Legislative Conference in Washington D.C. They met U.S. House members Rep. Aaron Schock and Rep. John Shimkus and the staff of Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) March 21-24.
They encouraged the senators and their staff to back President Obama’s proposed education budget, which would raise the amount of the Pell Grant award to $5,500. They also rallied for their support on H.R. 1464, a bill introduced by Rep. Bill Foster that would require federal agencies to help develop free and open source materials in the chemistry, physics, and math fields.
The Spring Student Government Association election are held on April 15-16. Candidates must have and maintain at least a 2.5 GPA for all courses completed at UIS. Undergraduate candidates must be attending at least at half-time status (6 credit hours) while graduate candidates must be enrolled for at least 4 credit hours. Candidates must turn in a completed application to the Student Life Office by no later than 4:30 p.m., April 3. A mandatory candidates meeting will be held in the Student Affairs Building on April 6, at 4:30 p.m. |
SGA Sergeant-at-Arms, Latrice Nettles authored a Resolution for the creation of a committee on a meal plan for UIS students. This meal plan option would help students who may have difficulty stretching their money to last an entire semester. The committee would research meal plans of comparable Illinois universities and determine if a similar approach would work for UIS. Nettles said that a meal plan option would be especially helpful to students who are leaving home for the first time and are making the initial transition to self-sufficiency.
A second Resolution, requesting the creation of a general Research Committee, was read before the SGA. The Resolution, authored by Senator Long was to provide research, in the form of student body surveys, and inquires of other universities which could be utilized in policy decisions and issues of interest to UIS students.
Both Resolutions passed.
In other news, Rook said that the Springfield Mass Transit District bus route changes around UIS, which were slated to go into effect, were postponed, due to a delay in the printing in new bus schedules. SMTD Managing Director Linda Tisdale said that delay was due to changes in the “time points” of the stops. Once the time points are finalized, the new schedule will be sent to a printer, which, according to Tisdale, should be by the end of the week. She said that the new route should stay in effect, “at least until the end of the fall semester, to give people the chance to get used to it.”
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