One for the Road: Final Senate meeting of spring term

On April 26 in the Jaguar Annex, the final Senate meeting of the spring term took place, during which cabinet approvals and budget summaries were the primary topics of deliberation.
In regards to public expressions, in which students can voice their opinions on relevant issues at Southern University in front of the governing student leaders, there were none shared.
While there was no old business from the previous session, the new business discussed included approvals of senior class officers, senate secretary, Men’s Federation, as well as Judicial Branch positions.
Similarly, SGA President-elect, Anthony Kenney also presented both the summer and fall budgets for the 2018-2019 school year.
As the summer 2018 budget is concerned, a large portion of funds will go towards expanding the SGA office, thanks in strong part to the efforts of newly hired Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs, Dr. Kimberly Ferguson-Scott.
This new space will be utilized by both the Men’s Federation and Judicial Branch in the fall semester of 2018, assuming all renovations go as planned.
As far as the fall budget is concerned, many factors were discussed, chiefly the 6 percent increase in enrollment for the fall/spring semester.
“Going over the SGA operational budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal budget, the numbers we’ve been over for the budget has been based off of the 6 percent enrollment increase as expected for the upcoming school year,” said Anthony Kenney, senior Mass Communications major from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
With the overall SGA budgets being at $155,325, there are numerous matters that the 2018-2019 budget will be responsible for as far as event planning and funding goes.
In an effort to emphasize security in the upcoming school year, the SGA budget also reveals that $9,000 has been allocated to campus security — namely the Southern University Police Department.
Another topic of funding discussed during the meeting was the budget for professional services such as DJ’s, speakers, and special stages which will be receiving approximately $1,500 in the fall.
In regards to funding for the judicial branch and the Senate, Kenney also announced how much these aforementioned parts of the SGA will be funded.
“For supplies, that money is allocated to the classes; the Senate [and] the Judicial branch for anything that they may need throughout the year for a total of $44,735.50,” said Kenney, addressing the student offices.
The 2018-2019 Miss Southern University, Darby Smith, was also in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting in order to discuss the budget for the Royal Court in the fall.
One of the issues touched on by Smith at the meeting was the grand total of expenditures for the 2018-2019 school year, amounting at $118,430, which will be broken down between multiple areas of the royal court’s obligations and events, such as professional services and coronation.
The final Senate meeting of the 2017-2018 academic year ended on a note of transparency and anticipation of another great school year.