The Slippery Rock Student Government Association (SGA) met Monday evening to discuss multiple finance motions among other business motions.
SGA approved SRSGA initiative request of $2,282 with $1,177.40 coming from budgetary reserves and $1,104.60 coming from capital reserves.
It was the finance committee’s response to the social justice committee’s original request of $3,386.60 for a pilot program to provide free menstrual products to people who menstruate on campus in the all gender restrooms. The social justice committee believes that everyone deserves equal access to menstrual products. The amount that was requested was to fund 20 restrooms on campus.
Kaitlyn Hazelett, vice president of financial affairs, and the finance committee wanted students to keep in mind the meaning of a pilot program, as she utilized a definition from The Association for Project Management.
“A pilot program is an initial small-scale implementation that is used to prove the viability of a project idea,” Hazelett said. “The pilot project enables an organization to manage the risk of a new idea and identify any deficiencies before substantial resources are committed.”
There are currently 71 all-gender restrooms on campus. These all-gender restrooms are spread out to roughly 27 buildings on campus, and only 18 of these buildings are academic buildings. Due to the fact that the student life survey dealt with the accessibility of students and not wanting to miss class due to an unexpected menstrual cycle, the finance committee felt that the pilot program should only consider the academic buildings on campus.
The social justice committee brought up that it would also be crucial to include Boozel Dining Hall along with these buildings, as a significant amount of students visit this location frequently during the school week. Likewise to academics, finance committee and social justice committee believed that students should not have to leave their meal due to lack of accessibility of menstrual products. This brought the total number of buildings eligible for funding up to 18.
Upon further examination of the potential pilot program, the finance committee found that starting with 10 buildings would serve as an “exceptional pilot program,” noting that it would be a little over 50 percent of all of the academic buildings on campus.
Finance committee also suggested that within the first semester of implementation of this pilot program, the social justice committee should create an exit survey with a question regarding where students would like to see this service in the future. Finance committee will work with the social justice committee to come up with a survey that will be beneficial in getting feedback on the service. They believe that once they have a substantial amount of information regarding the usage and value of the service, it will be easier to go about funding additional buildings and potentially an implementation of the program itself.
After the conversation was completed, finance committee decided that the recommended allocation would be:
- $1,104.60 for 10 sanitary product dispensers
- $655.20 for tampons and $522.20 for sanitary napkins (5,000 products each, 10,000 total)
After the motion was passed, Maggie Calvert, vice president of Diversity and Inclusion, moved to reconsider the motion and discuss the decision more, as there were multiple people who attended the formal meeting that shared their menstruation stories. Calvert felt that it would be insensitive to them and others that menstruate to completely dismiss a discussion. Calvert’s motion failed.
SGA then approved the SRU choirs and SRU jazz initiative request of $13,400. The SRU choirs and SRU jazz requested these funds to help fund their trip to Italy and France to perform by invitation at international jazz festivals. These funds go directly toward domestic bussing travel and international travel.
SGA approved the Triathlon Club’s initiative request of $955.11. These funds were requested to help fund their recently participated USAT races. The funds will go directly toward registration fees, USAT fees and mileage.
SGA approved SRU Winter Guard’s initiative request of $12,000. These funds were requested for transportation, hotel lodging, a rehearsal site, and equipment for their world championship competition in April.
SGA approved Hunting and Fishing Club’s initiative request of $400. These funds were requested for a club pheasant hunt to come together and share common interest in hunting. The funds will go directly toward the registration to the pheasant hunt.
The motion to rename Bob’s market to the SRU food pantry was originally approved, but after a motion was passed to reconsider the vote, the motion was sent back to committee.
SGA approved the proclamation of discrimination statement made by President Nicole Dunlop.
SGA approved the motion to elect Senator Burkhouse, Senator Hilzendeger, Senator Noonan and Senator Ohle to the SRSGA election commission.
SGA approved the draft of bylaws proposed by the rules and policies committee. Senator Condon reminded everyone that they are not adding anything new, but simply taking things that are already in their constitution and making them bylaws.
SGA also approved Senator Ohle as their SRSGA leadership scholarship recipient.
The mental health community cafe was rescheduled for next semester.
The budgetary reserves are sitting at $29,601.89, and the capital reserves are sitting at $14,832.98.
SGA’s next formal meeting will be on Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Smith Student Center Theater.
