By Nick Olinger | Staff Writer

The Student Government Association is dashing into new engagements for this spring semester.

Chris Drew conveyed there is going to be a blood drive open to the entire campus on Wednesday, Jan. 23, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This blood drive will be held in Ballroom C in the UC Drew also wanted to point out the involvement APSU has with Nashville.

He said there is a higher education bill being processed. This bill focuses on helping students get into a community college. Drew said there will be a common agreement with each community college and APSU, so APSU does not have to come to an agreement with each community college.

He said there are 13 community colleges in Tennessee and APSU is reaching out to all of them to try and bring in transfer students. He also said the other part of the bill is to get graduation rates to become part of the funding formula.

Kenny Kennedy said applications for the empty Senate seats were due Jan. 23. He said the process of selecting senators should be mostly done by Wednesday, Jan. 27.

He also added the results will be announced at Wednesday’s meeting.

Drew contributed some information regarding what APSU President Timothy Hall and the chair of the Tennessee Board of Regents, has been working on in Nashville.

“President Hall has been to Nashville and on the news, to put up a good case that Austin Peay’ s graduation rate should not be compared to the University of Tennessee’.” Drew said.

Drew gave statistics such as the a graduation rate of APSU is 27 percent, and the University of Tennessee’s is 84 percent.

The new involvements SGA is arranging were pointed out by both Kennedy and Drew. Kennedy said one big thing the SGA was doing is going through old files trying to make sure they did not leave anything important out over the last 20 years.
Drew said the SGA is trying to reach out to students this semester, and have more students involved next fall.

CORRECTION: The blood drive is Wednesday, Jan. 27.

In November, the end of the semester begins to loom ahead. Students balance their excitement for the coming break with the reality of finishing papers and prepping for finals.

In addition to the standard semester ending activities, members of APSU’s Student Government Association have issues and campus concerns to address and resolve in their weekly meetings as well.

In the Wednesday, Nov. 4, meeting one of the issues of concern discussed by the SGA was the impending e-mail change from APmail to Microsoft Live e-mail.

According to the minutes of the meeting, President Chris Drew explained the reason for the change to the rest of the SGA.

“Right now we have a campus server that supports 10,000 user names. We’re at capacity right now. So we can continue with what we have or we can upgrade service,” Drew said. “The other benefit is that as alumni you get to keep the account for free. So it’s a great opportunity for the Alumni office to stay in contact with us.”

Several senators expressed concerns about the time in which the transition from the old service to the new service will take place.

Senator Matt Ford suggested postponing the change until after finals and the holiday break. Senator Craig Amabile was one of several senators who agreed with Ford’s suggestion of postponement.

However, once a vote was taken, 18 senators agreed to keep the change date at Tuesday, Dec.1. Only three senators voted against the motion.

Later Amabile presented Resolution No. 4.

Which proposes making a gravel sidewalk near the new residence construction area.

Amabile said ultimately the goal is to get a real sidewalk. However, the city owns the street in question and currently isn’t looking to pave the area.

Amabile put forth a motion to call to the previous question ending the discussion and Senator Katherine Worsham submitted a motion to vote.

The resolution was passed unanimously.

Bookstore manager Shonte Maxey addressed SGA at the Wednesday, Nov. 18, meeting. Maxey described the new bookstore debit program. She also said the bookstore will have several sale and satellite locations where students can return their books. Lastly, Maxey said a new bookstore committee is being formed.

“We’re working on having a committee that is dictating us but is more informational,” Maxey said. “We want SGA and faculty there. We’re working with a group to figure out who is going to be on the committee. It’s so we can find out what people expect from us; what the faculty expect from us.”

Next, Trent Gaasch was sworn in as the new Chief Justice. Joe Marler from Knoxville, was sworn in as senator.

Resolution No. 5, 6 and 7 were presented by senators Amabile and Elle Smith.
Drew reminded everyone about the opportunity to change the smoking policy. He said they will decide what changes to submit as a senate and if they want them implemented soon, the changes must be submitted by Tuesday, Dec. 1.

By Patrick Armstrong | Editor in Chief

Brianna Velazquez named SGA chief justice. Photo by Mateen Sidiq | Multimedia Editor

An SGA committee met Thursday, Sept. 3, to interview six candidates for the vacant chief justice position. Former Chief Justice Megan Garret resigned for personal reasons earlier in the week.

“We were impressed with everything [Garret] put into it,” Chris Drew, SGA president, said after the selection of chief justice was made. “It was a mutual understanding.”

The candidates for chief justice were Hykeem Craft, Kevin Chriswell, Will Hendricks, Elle Smith, Katie Smith and Brianna Velazquez. Drew said he was impressed with the number of candidates and said the interviews went well, considering applicants had less than 24 hours to prepare. “All were qualified each in their own way,” Drew said.

The committee was comprised of Drew, Vice President Kenny Kennedy, Justice Kathryn White, Senator Riley Braem and Secretary Sara Seesholtz. SGA Adviser Greg Singleton was also present.

Since SGA did not have a current chief justice or associate justice, Seesholtz was chosen to fill the vacancy on the committee.

The committee selected Velazquez as the new chief justice.

“The executive council and our adviser are working very hard to see that this does not disrupt any of the functions and services that students expect of us,” Drew said in an e-mail sent out to all SGA members.

– Patrick Armstrong, Editor in Chief