Elon senior Sarah Rusthoven presented legislation to Elon’s Student Government Association requesting $25,000 to fund an on-campus mural. During the last business meeting of SGA’s 2022-23 term, senators passed three pieces of legislation and governing documents.
Rusthoven said the preferred location for the mural is in the outdoor space behind Irazu Coffee, as the university already has renovations planned including adding a fire pit and new lighting. The renovations are scheduled to be completed this fall.
The reasoning behind both the university’s renovations and the location for the mural is to add more foot traffic to an underutilized on campus space, according to Rusthoven.
“It is a central location on campus,” Rusthoven said. “Tour groups consistently walk through that area and are able to see that, and potentially people can learn about, ‘Wow, they have community collaboration here at Elon.’”
The mural will be completed by Graham artists Beth O’Bryant and David Nance, who have completed other murals within Alamance County. This legislation passed 34-0-1.
SGA also voted to approve changes made updating the Finance Bylaws. Vice President of Finance Megan Curling presented the changes and said the main change is simplifying and clarifying the document. Curling said the changes she made were based on feedback from the Finance Board.
“The biggest pieces of feedback – my favorite one — is ‘this gives conflicting information that makes it hard to know what will be funded,’” Curling said.
Curling highlighted that within the bylaws, there are spending caps for how much funding SGA can provide for specific items, such as meals per person, flights and hotel costs.
Due to not being able to fully accommodate student organizations requests because of inflation, Curling increased spending caps. Currently, the spending cap for a meal per person is $17, and with the new changes the new cap will be $20. The cost of gas has also been adjusted to match university rates.
Curling also updated the Senate on how much of the budget has been spent. Currently just under $300,000 has been allocated to student organizations, which is 69% of SGA’s $436,000 budget. This has led to SGA funding 484 individual events for student organizations.
SGA also approved the creation of the Executive Bylaws. Student Body President Nadine Jose presented this document which includes the responsibilities of each executive position, rules governing the cabinet and end of year transition. Jose said this clarifies the process for holding executive members accountable for absences and makes it clear which committee’s SGA has student representation on. Jose said the point of this document is to make sure there is continuity between each term for executive members. One change the bylaws created is that the cabinet will now present its progress during one meeting each semester.
Jose also encouraged all senators to vote in SGA elections, which open on PhoenixCONNECT March 27 at 8 a.m. and close March 28 at 5 p.m.