SGA passed a motion to raise the Student Center Fee from $4.25 to $4.75, funded a sexual assault survivor care kit drive and allocated $3,000 to the Bear Den and Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Sen. Molly Austin presented a motion created by the Student Fee Advisory Committee to raise the Student Center Fee by 50 cents per credit hour, raising the maximum fee for a full-time student to $71.25 per semester.
This increase will bring about $60,000 to the Ronnie Williams Student Center and increase the amount full-time students pay by $7.50.
Sen. Matt Moix said the money would be used to revitalize the Student Center, including updating furniture on the second floor and adding “more purple in the building.”
During the last meeting Nov. 13, senior Anna Styers requested funding for her sexual assault survivor care kit drive. A kit includes sweatpants, a T-shirt, socks, underwear and hygiene products in a drawstring backpack.
“A survivor care kit is really important to sexual assault survivors, and it’s what a sexual assault survivor gets after they’ve had a rape kit conducted at a hospital,” Styers said. “They offer comfort but most importantly, hospitals don’t secure funding for survivor care kits, so they really depend on other nonprofits and outside organizations to put these together.”
Styers said the packages would go to Conway Regional and Baptist Health, the only Conway hospitals where nurses are Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner-certified.
After Vice President of Finance Phoenix Vu announced the Finance Committee would postpone the decision to fund the project, Senator Makenna Goss moved that SGA allocate $3,678.47 to the Department of Philosophy and Religion to support the creation of sexual assault survivor care kits, and it passed unanimously.
Sen. Lily Moritz said, “There is nowhere on campus to perform a rape kit … Therefore, if you were sexually assaulted or raped on campus, you would have to go to a hospital, in which they are providing those bags, so it does directly affect UCA students.”
During the last meeting, Bear Den President Bailey Doss and Vice President of Operations Kaddie Bailey requested $3,031.41 to pass out 250 T-shirts at the second annual celebration of Bruce and Sugar’s birthday Jan. 18.
“This is an event that helps with the school spirit and celebrates integral parts of being a student, Bruce and Sugar,” Doss said.
Vu said the Finance Committee discussed the request and agreed to fund half of the T-shirt cost during the Nov. 27 meeting.
Makya McMillion requested $3,150 for Alpha Kappa Alpha’s conferences, events and advertising, and SGA agreed to allocate up to $1,500 since the sorority missed the Student Fee Activity Allocation funding request deadline.
