With another piece of legislation passed during Wednesday's Student Government Association meeting, students will see e-mails in their mailboxes when Spring Semester begins about important academic dates.
The e-mails would be sent five days prior to events such as course requests, course withdrawal periods, registration, Fruesday and applying for graduation to remind students they were approaching.
Jimmy Faroh, the bill's author and Student Services Committee Whip, said the e-mails were something that needed to be done for a while and should be added to other e-mails that are sent. He said he was glad the legislation passed without debate and did not think it would be a big issue because it was not controversial.
SGA Vice President Jamie Manuel said this was a good piece of legislation and congratulated Faroh for writing it and it getting passed.
"This was a simple idea that came from students," Manuel said, "and they would be appreciative of getting the information."
The legislation will go to Ball State University Provost Terry King for implementation. King was supportive of the legislation before it was introduced to Student Senate, according to information shared during the bill's question and answer session during last week's SGA meeting.
Senators also discussed one amendment to the SGA Bylaws that called for the recognition and implementation of the Multicultural Council. They also discussed another amendment to the Bylaws that added the responsibility of advising the Multicultural Council to the Secretary of Diversity's position.
Some senators wanted to know which groups could be on the council, and they said the groups mentioned in the legislation were not representative of the entire Ball State population. Others wondered how the Multicultural Council would affect SGA and how it is run.
The groups mentioned are the Asian American Student Association, the Black Student Association, the Latino Student Union and Spectrum.
Author and SGA Parliamentarian Travis Schilla and Secretary of Diversity Amanda Ostoich said other organizations were encouraged to join and not all seats on the council were for organizations. Students can be on some of the at-large seats as long as they have a legitimate reason for wanting to be on the council, Ostoich said.
"It won't affect the running of SGA, but it's not offset to it," Schilla said.
Both passed and will be added to the Bylaws. The Multicultural Council was a platform item for U.N.I.T.E.D. Initiative.
The other major thing the senators did during the meeting was watch a video that was a keepsake for the unborn son of a fallen Marine.
Manuel said the video was of Bobby Warns, who died in Iraq in 2004. Manuel said it was shown not just because Monday was Veteran's Day but also to encourage civic engagement.
"This is representative of the funerals and memories of thousands of soldiers who have died for our freedoms," he said.
After the video finished playing the room became quiet and some senators had teared up.
"This video isn't meant to make you cry," Manuel said. "It's to think of the sacrifices made overseas. Civic engagement doesn't end at voting, but knowing what's happening in this country and overseas."
CommitteesBelow is a list of some things said in some of the committee reports.
Student Safety: Crosswalks were painted on Neely Avenue between Noyer Complex and Irving Gym so students can see them better. Also there had been concern over whether mace and pepper spray could be used on campus if needed. It was determined that mace is not legal on campus but pepper spray can be used as long as it is for protective purposes.
Student Services: Students who do not pick up food they ordered online get charged to their Bursars accounts and after three times of not picking up food students are no longer allowed to use the service.
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