Senators don’t make SGA meeting

No students who were supposed to be appointed by departments to serve on a new Student Senate showed up at Monday’s Student Government Association meeting in the craft room of Loftin Student Center.

This was the first meeting in which newly appointed members of Student Senate were to meet with the SGA, whose members are elected by students.

SGA made the announcement of creating a Student Senate Sept. 11 during a College Council Meeting.

Addressing student issues in every department is the goal of the Student Senate, Jacob Wong, SGA President and psychology sophomore, said.

Department chairs had less than a week to nominate and send representatives to the first Student Senate meeting.

Wong said he believed department chairs did not have enough time to appoint representatives and is confident more will be able to attend future meetings.

SGA Commissioner Keely Ross was named chair of Student Senate during the meeting.

SGA has introduced a sign-in sheet and an agenda for each meeting.

SGA offered students refreshments and the chance to address any issues that concerned them.

Though no student delegates attended, five students attended to observe the meeting.

During the meeting, Wong brought up the Sept. 13 Pepsi with the President event with President Robert Zeigler.

Commissioner Ariel Reynolds, chemistry sophomore, suggested at Pepsi with the President that students have a designated smoking area on campus.

Wong said Reynolds was concerned that students were putting themselves in danger by smoking on streets to avoid getting ticketed by campus police.

Zeigler said Thursday the college will continue to be a smoke-free campus.

In other news, SGA reported that Pizza with the President fed 500 students Sept. 13 in Loftin.

About 230 boxes of pizza were purchased, but SGA has not yet released the cost of the event.

SGA will co-host a Valentine’s Day masquerade ball with the Psychology Club in Koehler Cultural Center.

The office of student life funds the event, which will be limited to 200 attendees. Details will be available soon.

In other news, a launch event for the Red Cord Honors Program has been rescheduled to 10 a.m. Oct. 18 in the Fiesta Room in Loftin. The event was delayed because of scheduling conflicts.

This will be the first year for this college to offer the red cord during graduation.

South Texas Blood and Tissue Center offered the red cord to high school graduates.