Three of six proposed bills were passed Thursday at the Student Government Association’s final meeting of the semester; another was tabled until the fall.
Two bills for new equipment in the Morton Fitness Center were passed, with SGA granting a total of $1,150.
SGA President Alyssa Hutchinson wrote in an email that the Sycamore Park Facilities bill, which would have allocated $4,150 for the baseball fields in Sycamore Park to have safety improvements made to the dugouts and the fence surrounding the fields, was tabled until next semester.
SGA Vice President Lynzie Moore was one of two representatives who presented the bill, and said she felt it was necessary for these issues to be addressed quickly.
When other representatives suggested it could wait until next season, Moore voiced her concern.
“Anything can wait, it’s just that everything’s waited,” she said. “You know, they waited for the basketball floor to get fixed, and the air conditioning to get fixed and now the floors are warped. So that just goes on another back burner. So we wait to do it, and then another five years goes down the road. That’s just why I bring up the emphasis on this and why it’s so important, because it only might hit a small minority, but you have to think that athletes are fifty percent of our campus.”
Several members of the audience agreed with Moore’s stance. Soccer player Katelynn Teufel said field conditions “play such a big part in how the games play and how you practice.”
Teufel added that safety conditions are already being compromised with the athletic training program being cut.
“The fact that we’re putting an extra risk on the field and there’s gonna be more people that are likely to get hurt, I’m just looking at it from a slippery slope type of perspective,” said Teufel, a junior criminal justice major.
More than 20 awards were passed out at the beginning of the meeting. Many were humorous, such as Treasurer Anahita Keer being given a certificate for “Most Likely To Be Caught In Traffic.” University President Frederick Slabach, who was present, was one of several people or organizations given an award for “Exemplary Investment in Students.”