The Ball State Student Government Association (SGA) began their meeting with special orders of business, beginning with a presentation from Justice Applicant Aliyah Lane. Lane was approved on a vote of 27-0 with one abstention.
They then went into senate applicants, beginning with Off-campus applicant Wesley Lee. Lee was approved on a vote of 27-0 with one abstention.
There were two applicants for the Collegiate Caucus, Shannon Mashindi with the college of architecture and Tammy Pham with the college of health. Mashindi was approved 29-0 with zero abstentions and Pham was approved 29-2 with two abstentions.
With three new senators and no new or unfinished business, SGA moved into executive reports. President Joseph Gassensmith offered the executive board’s response to the incident that occurred at Studebaker West residence hall. The response included, in part:
“This statement concerns the lack of information surrounding these events which has thereby created a general feeling of unease amongst our student body. This is not consistent with the mission of the university to build and foster a vibrant and safe campus community.
We, the Executive (stet) board of the Student Government Association, with the authority of our respective offices, hereby call upon the Ball State University Police Department, the Ball State Office of Housing and Residence life, and Ball State University in general, to make public information and statements regarding the event to ease the minds of our students and ensure an event like this does not happen again.”
Gassensmith also gave an update on his meeting with Anand Marri, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of educational studies, about disability awareness platform points. The points have been endorsed by both disability services and the alliance for disability awareness and are now endorsed by the office of the Provost.
These points include that all lectures be recorded and provided for students via Canvas and that, when appropriate, closed captioning will be required for all presentations and videos used in the classroom. It will also require that all coursework and instructions are provided both verbally and in writing. The earliest that these could be in place would be the 2024-2025 academic year.
The rest of the executive board then gave their reports, and then went into caucus and committee meetings. They ended with announcements and final roll call, and then the senate meeting was adjourned.
Contact Madelyn Bracken with comments at madelyn.bracken@bsu.edu.
