Southeast Missouri State University student publication

SGA votes to temporarily suspend Student Activities Council with new organization

Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Senators voted on creating SEA and temporarily suspending SAC at their April 4 meeting. The resolution as passed.
Photo by Jowairia Khalid

Editor’s Note: When this story first published, the members making up the Student Engagement Advisory Committee (SEA) identified in Layla Bouzihay’s quote, were misattributed. The story has been edited for accuracy. The Arrow regrets this error.

The Student Government Association (SGA) moved to create the Student Engagement Advisory Committee (SEA) and temporarily suspend Student Activities Council (SAC) at the April 4 meeting after tabling the discussion at last week’s meeting.

SGA members are concerned SAC isn’t signing contracts in time, using fund money appropriately on their events, and recruiting or retaining members. The SAC merger will involve Campus Life signing contracts and aiding SAC with events.

Vice president Nolan Knupp invited SAC President Tyrell Gilwater and vice president Rico Swiney to discuss the SGA and SAC merger, which will begin this fall.

Gilwater said he tried to invite other SAC members to the SGA meeting, but they could not attend. Gilwater said SAC is having issues recruiting and retaining members.

“As you can see, SAC needs help. SAC isn’t concerned and doesn’t know how it has gotten to this point. We have been very successful, since I have become president. Every event we have been successful, we have had record turnouts. We just need more help from SGA. We don’t want to completely get rid of SAC,” Gilwater said.

Gilwater said if SAC was suspended and SEA was created, students might be confused and think SAC was on campus.

Swiney also voiced his concerns about how SEA will be run next year.

“I don’t know if it will be student-run or student-led. For me, this doesn’t feel student-led. If we don’t ask students how they feel about [the merger] on campus, then [the merger] should be re-thought,” Swiney said.

For SAC, student-run means SAC would be leading the events and student-run is letting Campus Life leading the events.

Swiney said he does not believe SAC is a complete failure, despite the organization having trouble with recruitment. Swiney said there are currently nine members in SAC.

Swiney said there is an increasing student turnout at SAC events, and Swiney believes it will translate into recruitment numbers for the SAC executive board in the next couple of years.

SGA president Layla Bouzihay asked what Swiney and the rest of SAC members would like to see instead of the SEA proposal.

Swiney said SAC would like to have a merger with SGA to help with recruitment, retention and event planning, and they are open to any changes that don’t involve a takeover or dissolving SAC.

SGA secretary Kate Appleman asked Swiney if SAC members would continue to serve as a part of SEA by planning events, ordering items and recruiting more members.

“The whole point of this [merger] is to have [SAC] still be in charge but just having more help. There will be students in Campus Life helping you, so it will still be student-run,” Appleman said.

Swiney said he doesn’t believe [SEA] will be student-led, because paid campus life members are helping.

“It seems for [SEA] to be student-led, you have to be an employee of Campus Life. We see [SEA] as more student-guided, like we are taking the role of an advisor for events,” Swiney said.

Swiney said he asked his executive members if they would stay with SAC before the merger, and his board said yes. After Swiney asked if his executive members would stay after the merger, they said no.

“The way SAC is run, we create and run all of our events. Having Campus Life is adding another step to our process,” Swiney said.

Bouzihay said SEA will include two members appointed by the SGA president, the director of Campus Life, student workers in Campus Life and general body members. Campus Life will assist SEA members with completing event contracts on time, managing money and marketing the organization.

Director of Campus Life Michele Irby said if recruitment is SAC’s main problem, they should recruit members who are new students at Camp Redhawk, FirstStep Orientation and Opening Week.

Humanities and Social Sciences senator Jonah McGuire said there are a lot of actions SGA could have done before implementing this suspension.

“As an organization that funds SAC, we could have helped to recruit and help with events. It’s the end of the semester, and we have done nothing. It is part of our fault. We could have given [SAC the] support. I don’t think this [merger] is a bad idea, but we could have helped them shorten it,” McGuire said.

Harrison College of Business and Computing senator Heather Hoffman said it was too late to talk about what could have been done to help SAC.

“The proposal is good, and we can make some changes. It’s nice knowing members will be working on this, and any student can join and take their ideas to the Student Life workers,” Hoffman said.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) senator Anna Carpenter said the SAC executive board could have come to SGA at any point for help.

“I think people are forgetting this will be re-evaluated every year. They can choose to suspend it or continue with it, but [SAC] will be evaluated. We’re not ending this organization, just putting it on pause. I think this [merger] is great. We can say ‘yes’ and make those adjustments later,” Carpenter said.

The SAC merger into SEA was passed at the end of the meeting, with 20 members voting yes and nine members voting no.

View the full April 4 SGA meeting on the Arrow’s Facebook page.

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