This fall semester, the Student Government Association has addressed and proposed changes for several issues on campus. As the semester comes to a close, these are the top issues raised by SGA this semester.
Smoking ban
After hearing several concerns from students about the excessive smoking and tobacco use on campus, the Planning and Development Committee motioned to approve a policy against it during a senate meeting. The policy, passed this semester, prohibits smoking and tobacco use of any kind on Georgia State property; however, smoking is allowed at designated areas in University Housing. Students caught smoking in restricted areas will be “reminded in a professional and courteous manner of this policy.”
As weeks progressed, senators noticed that students were still dauntlessly smoking in the policy’s restricted areas. During a full senate meeting, senators agreed to establish a sub-committee for the issue to attempt to institute the smoking ban as a city ordinance in order to have police enforce the smoking ban as well.
Plus/minus grading system
The SGA senate also proposed a change in the current grading system to a more standard policy. The plus or minus grading policy will require professors to grade students with a plus or minus in their final grade.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Adriana Macchione proposed this change during a senate meeting to promote consistency in Georgia State’s grading system. Before approving the policy, Academic Affairs wanted student feedback to ensure student support. By utilizing Survey Monkey to conduct student surveys, so far, the grading system received mostly negative responses from students.
Video gambling
As concerns about the future of the HOPE Scholarship arise, the Georgia House of Representatives recently passed a resolution that would allow counties to vote on video gambling as a way to fund the scholarship. President Marcus Kernizan first introduced the SGA and Georgia State’s potential exploration and involvement in the current movement of the video gambling legislation. Most recently, Kernizan said that most schools and students in the state of Georgia are not “on the same page” regarding the legislation. Kernizan also said the senate will rest on the issue in order to receive student feedback to ensure the support of Georgia State students.
Homecoming costs concerns
During the time of Homecoming events and plans, concerns within the senate about financial expenses and sponsorship that may have negatively affected students were present during full senate meetings. When Spotlight, after assigning a $500,000 programming budget, asked for an additional $5,000 from SGA as a part of a co-sponsorship for Homecoming events. Senators grew concerned because the other organizations were not contributing as financially as SGA was asked to but were contributing labor for activities due to the organization’s financial ability. During Homecoming, SGA promotion was welcomed at all events, and all of the cosponsors worked together to make the Homecoming process run smoothly.
