In their first session of the semester, Central Student Government reflected their performance last semester and made plans for their budget Tuesday night.
CSG president Cooper Charlton, an LSA senior, asked the body’s representatives to look inward when gauging the effectiveness of the previous semester.
“I said three things at the beginning of the (fall) semester,” Charlton said. “That was confidence, respect and execution.”
Cooper said to accomplish their objectives this semester, the assembly must trust and respect itself as a body. He said making goals a reality was something he had hoped to see more of in the fall semester.
“Execution looks like reflection: looking at yourself in the mirror and asking ‘What did I run on, have I done it,’ and actually answering that question honestly,” Charlton said. “We have one more semester to make it happen and I hope we can do it together.”
Speaking to accomplishments, Charlton highlighted the launch of u-clubs, a website he co-created with LSA junior Aaron Jones designed to simplify communications between students and the student organizations on campus.
“It’s like a Craigslist for student unions,” he said. “What it does is it takes Festifall and Winterfest and puts it online — something I’m very excited about.”
Budget plans
Business senior Kevin Ziegler, CSG treasurer, announced the budget for the winter semester. He highlighted the Student Organization Funding Commission’s successes in particular in allocating almost all of their funds in the previous semester.
“Their total from the semester, their absolute final was 99.85% of their $200,000 budget,” he said. “They came within $300 of their allotted amount.”
Speaking to the proposed budget for the semester, Ziegler said he looked at where there had been leftover money and proposed a shift in the distribution slightly, due to mandatory allocations and SOFC’s success.
“My personal goal is to extend as much money as possible that the students are paying us as long as they’re here at the University,” he said. “I’m proposing a 5 percent increase to SOFC; this is, one, as a result to their tremendous result in the fall, in addition to a predicted increase in requests from student organization in the winter semester.”
CSG brought a resolution to the floor to enact their budget for the winter semester Tuesday, and a resolution to amend the compiled code’s budget allocation to the assembly floor.
Guest Speakers
Guest speaker Brittney Williams, chair of the Student Engagement Commission, addressed the assembly on the progress of the commission.
“We are trying to increase administration and University support for each of these demographics: international, transfer and non-traditional,” she said.
Williams illustrated the accomplishments made last semester, which included getting an international student advisor on staff at the Newnan Center, and conducting research on international students’ transition into student housing as well as their feelings about social inclusion.
She also discussed her commission’s goal for the semester to expand resources to nontraditional students.
“We’d like to hire a nontraditionals advisor to Newnan, similar to what the transfers have done,” she said. “Or at least designate a current advisor to nontraditional student needs, establish a transfer student scholarship, at least in LSA, we are also planning an international student job fair that’s to take place in fall of 2016.”
Plans moving forward
CSG representatives also outlined the progress of initiatives from last semester and discussed election dates for the upcoming semester.
Public Policy junior Thomas Hislop, a CSG representative, spoke about plans to launch the Prescription Drug Misuse Campaign, a project proposed last semester to draw student awareness to the dangers of drug use on campus.
The launch is expected to occur between March 6 and 12.
“The idea so far is to have a video with student advocates, and students for recovery have been great with working with us, pledge boards, we’re going to have expert panelists, we are also going to have a media campaign,” Hislop said.