Student Forum Report 10-26-2016

Senator Jon Smith, who is a Law Enforcement student is planning to advance activity of “Safe Walk”, is a security-implemented program on the Minnesota State University, Mankato campus.

Since junior and senior students from the Law Enforcement major must complete 25 hours of training, Smith said that he believed it would be a good idea for them to create more awareness and action so students could feel more safely. Since it would not make it back in the time required, Smith is seeking additional options with the local police and the law enforcement program. One professor from the law enforcement program has already assisted Smith as he moves forward for the next strategizing steps.

In the meantime, Smith planned to maintain contact with the police chief and discuss more details in the next Minnesota State Student Association meeting on Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. in the Nickerson Conference Room.

In his report, President Faical Rayani mentioned how impressed he was with how the Recognized Student Organizations had improved with their order. Last year 36 organizations failed to meet the deadlines which disabled them from registering, but this year, the number decreased significantly but could not remember by how much.

Senator De Ruiter added that the ease so that an organization has also increased dramatically because of unforeseen fallacies in the system that the Senate had improved over the course of this year.

A motion passed to continue any positive changes for the RSO submission process. The Senate will also address their ideas in the next meeting as well. As a separate issue, Rayani also attended a student leadership mini retreat over the weekend with other college presidents and asked for any feedback that students may want to give him.

The student senate members passed the motion to include the new draft for the Personal Safety Alert for Sexual Misconduct when receiving star alerts. Vice President Maria Ruiz addressed the discussion in regards to how and where they would provide warnings for students who suffer triggers. Since all entities must support the policy, it is typically only passes once every six years so the Senate decided it would list the services in their emails.

The Senate encouraged students to give any feedback they might have within thirty days. From there, the new policy will be transferred to Dr. Jones to the president’s cabinet and hopefully from there, the policy will be granted official approval.

Ruiz emphasized the importance of the students’ knowledge the resources available to them such as University Security, Counseling Center, Student Health Services, and Violence Awareness and Response Program, Office of Equal Opportunity & Title IX, and the Senate itself.

In other news surrounding the school:
-On November 10, a Queer Comedy Night will host at the Ostrander Auditorium at 9 a.m.
-From November 7 to 11, Mobile Reflection Wall will display at the Centennial Student Union and the Taylor Center at 7:30 p.m.
-The Battle of the Bands will compete in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom at 7:30 p.m.
-The student events team informed of a Galactic Wall Climbing on November 19 at 8 p.m. at Myers Fieldhouse.