The Student Government Association began with Dr. Leslie Graybeal, the Executive Director of Outreach and community engagement, led the meeting outlining the up and coming Independent Living service’s (ILS) Halloween dance on Oct. 20 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
ILS is a local non profit organization that assists special needs adults. Graybeal said, “They work with adults with special needs, and so they provide a day program where adults with special needs can come spend time during the day. They participate in different classes, music, art, civic engagement. They have some great stuff. And then they also support adults with special needs who live independently in different housing that ILS manages.”
All of the SGA senators will be in attendance.
Afterwards the director of Business Student Affairs Communication and Assessment Alex Smith Claude talked about the upcoming UCA homecoming. For the list of homecoming events to come to fruition, multiple student organizations are coming together to help run and fund the week of events. A big contributor to this year’s homecoming will be the department of student affairs. Claude said “The Division of Student Affairs is an institutional division, one of the five divisions across the institution. Our focus is on holistic development of our students, student experience and ensuring that our students are well supported. We serve all students and we promote all students, and we want to share experiences with all students.”
Claude requested that SGA would help cosponsor these events with the total ask of the student government being 7,177 dollars.
The 7,177 contribution would help fund and secure the existence of a full week of activities for any student to participate in. Some of the activities include a fall fest pep rally, a silent disco and the booze over blues.
Claude said “we want to continue building that relationship and fostering that relationship with SGA. Our mission this homecoming is to create fun, memorable experiences for all students to celebrate homecoming.”
After the homecoming pitch Cheryl Callaghan the vice president of the cyber security club presented alongside their newly assigned treasurer asked the SGA for 1,980 dollars to help fund student attendance at the National Cyber League which is a three day coding competition. When asked more about the competition Callaghan said “It enhances professional portfolios, that’s a big thing for a lot of our recruiters. They are looking for people who do have expertise, and how do they apply themselves outside of the classroom. Build a community among students interested in cyber security. I also, as a woman in STEM I love trying to build a community. So I’m really not a big fan of, like, a cyber security mindset, that you have to be like a nerd who lives in your basement and likes codes all day. Obviously, I’m not a nerd who codes all day. I do take showers.” The SGA funding would allow the club to cover the 55 dollar per student attendance fee and makes UCA competing viable for the students willing to participate.
In past years out of 3000 teams UCA has recently made it within the top 100 performing teams, making them well within the top 98th percentile of competitors.
With there being a new treasurer and more information needed the SGA agreed to table the funding discussion to next meeting Oct. 13.