SGA welcomes new senator, discusses four-year plans

USD’s Student Government Association held their fourth meeting of the semester. Senate addressed their concerns with the four-year plans available online for students. 

Amber Hulse, SGA’s office manager, expressed concerns with the current systems for the four-year planning program. Hulse said there is confusion among students because of sometimes differing facts on WebAdvisor, the four-year plans online and the public category when it comes to what is required for specific majors and minors.

“The whole ‘finish in four’ campaign is falling behind because students can’t find what they need to take because they are searching in different places,” Hulse said.

Hackemer said he would recommend looking at the four-year plans most because they are updated on an annual basis. However, the Senate mentioned issues with the four-year plans not being updated regularly.

“You’re right it’s not a perfect system,” Hackemer said. “I will take it up with the SAPC because all of the four-year plans are supposed to be updated regularly.”

SGA appointed a new at-large senator at their meeting Tuesday evening.  Carissa Occhipinto, a freshman political science major, was appointed as the newest at-large senator, and she was also appointed to the student affairs committee.

Occhipinto said she wanted to get involved with SGA because she thought it was a good way to become active on campus.

“I really care about this school because it just feels like home,”Occhipinto said. “I want to have a say in what happens here. Being an at-large senator just seemed like a good opportunity to get involved as a freshman and get to know everybody and make this school my home.”

Kurt Hackemer, USD’s interim provost, also attended Tuesday’s meeting to answer the Senate’s questions regarding four-year plans and international students remedial classes. 

The Senate also discussed Senate Bill 75 and Senate resolution five.

Senate Bill 75 is in response to a mistake in the International Club budget for this school year and Senate resolution five will waiver the application fee for graduate school applications.

Both bills will be voted on at a later date. 

A previous version of this story misspelled Carissa Occhipinto’s name. The Volante regrets the error.