SGA holds second meeting of the semester
SGA held the second meeting of the semester at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 12. After roll was taken, approving the agenda and the minutes from last week’s meeting, they kicked off the meeting with Vice President Elizabeth Brust approving the proxies.
The meeting started with guest speaker, April Lee, assistant director of service learning and community, starting off with the mission statement of the office of service learning.
“By establishing a connection between the USD campus and the vermillion community and offering USD students meaningful, practical volunteering opportunities with community partners, the office of service learning a route to active citizenship,” Lee said.
Lee went on to discuss how they added more recycling cans and hope to add more in the future. After, she spoke about the Yote Bike Share program.
Lee discussed how the Yote Bike Share Program started through SGA and how it is fully student-led and managed. Lee also discussed how the bikes are free and get checked out on a daily basis. However, Lee noted that she has been experiencing some issues with students not returning bikes when other students may need them.
“I would love to see [us use] a system called Linka Fleet. They are a company out of Canada, and this would be providing electronic locks and GPS systems and then also an app to manage the reservations and manage their rides,” Lee said.
The director of the Opportunity Center, Jordan Bonstrom, also made an appearance at the meeting. Bonstrom began the discussion by recommending students to apply for the President’s Senior Leadership Institute through an application that is due on Sept. 15 and open to all senior-level students at no cost.
“For those of you that have senior status and credit, and are planning on graduating next spring, summer or December or you have friends who have seen your level of credits that are going to graduate, I would highly encourage you to apply to the President’s Senior Leadership institute,” Bonstrom said.
After discussing the opening for students to apply for it, Bonstrom informed SGA about a guest speaker, Tianna Faye, coming to the USD campus next Tuesday. The speech Faye will be presenting is called “Stress, Success and Duck Syndrome” and will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the MUC ballroom.
Later on, senators reviewed the new bills, which are currently being reviewed by their committees. One example of this is Senate Bill 84, “An Act Modifying the Standardization of the At-Large Selection Process,” which was sponsored by Sen. Rachel Beare.
Senate Bill 85, “Dermatology Interest Group Special Appropriation”, was also reviewed and sponsored by Sen. Dawson Johnson.
The following bills were also reviewed: Senate Bill 86, “Yotes for Life Special Appropriations” Senate Bill 88, “SDAEYC Special appropriations” Senate Bill 89, “USD Esports Special Appropriations.” All listed bills were sponsored by Sen. Johnson. Lastly, Senate Bill 90, a bill Modifying the purpose of Special Appropriations Funds (sponsored by Sen. Trevor Sinclair). Currently, each bill is being looked over by committees.
The meeting finished at approximately 8:06 p.m. SGA’s next meeting will be held next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Freedom Forum in the Al Neuharth Media Center.
