Heading
into this semester, Appalachian State University’s Student
Government Association (SGA) is planning to deal with the proposed
athletic fee increase, as well as push for a variety of other initiatives.
The athletic fee increase, proposed by the administration last semester,
would go to fund expansion of Varsity Gymnasium and Owens Field
House. SGA narrowly passed a bill declaring their objection to the
fee, citing concerns about how many students would benefit and how
necessary the improvements were in a budget crisis.
The Board of Trustees (BOT) will make a decision on the fee at their
Feb. 6-7 meeting.
“I’d say one of the main issues remains the athletic fee,
and we’re going to start plans back up on how to deal with
that,” SGA Vice President Ezell P. Williams said Tuesday. “[Eller]
and I are going to be discussing and negotiating at the Trustees
level.”
“I passed on the legislation to the administration and the
Board of Trustees, along with a letter stating some of the basic
arguments I’d made before,” Student Body President Ryan
M. Eller, who holds a seat on the BOT, said Tuesday.
Eller said he plans to propose two motions at the meeting, one to
support all departments receiving their usual part of the annual
5 percent tuition increase, and another to forbid fees ever being
raised again to fund the proposed construction.
Several senators have begun plans to produce fliers and raise support
for a protest at the meeting. The meeting was previously scheduled
for December but was cancelled due to weather conditions.
“Since we have more time now, we’re going to do more,”
off-campus Sen. H. Dustin Bayard, one of the organizers of the protest,
said Tuesday. “We’re going to keep producing materials,
and now we have more time to make them bigger and better and get
them out to the student body.”
Other plans for this semester include possible legislation on rape
and a drug provision of the Higher Education Act.
“I hope I have at least two or three bills come across my desk
this semester asking for change on some issue dealing with rape
and sexual assault,” Eller said. “There’s still hope
among many students on campus to have rape kits, though there would
be many things that would have to occur with health services to
provide that.”
Another initiative centers around the upcoming meeting of the Association
of Student Governments (ASG), the body representing all of the student
governments in the University of North Carolina system. ASG will
meet at Appalachian Jan. 24.
Bayard said he planned to propose legislation at the ASG meeting
concerning the Higher Education Act, which has a provision denying
any student with a drug conviction financial aid.
Appalachian was the second school in the nation to have SGA legislation
opposing the provision endorsed by its chancellor.
“It’d be a great step to have all 16 schools in the UNC
system on record as opposing this [provision],” Bayard said. |
