Katie Maxwell opened the spring Delegates’ Agenda with a reminder to keep in mind the limitations of topics.
“We are striving for progress, not perfection,” Maxwell said.
And progress is what students, both presenters and attendees, asked of the administration on the five topics that were previously chosen at the setting of the Delegates’ Agenda.
Student Organization budget Cuts
The delegates asked for the administration to increase the budget allocated to the Student Government Association (SGA) to reflect the increase in student organizations. This follows a recent 51 percent budget cut to all student organizations funds due to SGA’s funding pool running short. SGA’s current budget is $118,495 in the presentation they asked for their budget to be increased to $189,345. This number reflects the increase in the student body and student organizations, said delegate Josh Merseal.
Tuition remission for contracted workers
The delegates asked for the University to begin offering reduced tuition for contract workers. Workers such as the janitorial and food services staff through Sodexo and bookstore workers through Follett. Currently no form of reduced tuition is offered to contracted workers or their immediate family as is offered to Webster University employees.
Increased student activity fee
More than three quarters of students believe that Webster’s Student activities are inferior to or equal to those of other schools, according to a survey produced by the delegates. The delegates asked the administration to increase the student activity fee so that every full time student pays to help give more funding to Student Activities. The delegates also asked that part-time and graduate students begin paying a student activity fee as well.
On campus car rental
Go online and reserve a time, swipe your card and you have a car. That’s the idea that delegates presented based off a plan Enterprise Rent-A-Car has employed at other campuses in the area such Washington University and University of Missouri Columbia. The delegates said that through Enterprise more use means lower monthly fees for the university.
Budget jobs
Delegates were concerned that the availability, as well as ease of finding, budget jobs is hindering students ability to work and build experience. The delegates asked that changes to involved@webster be made to make it easier to separate work-study and budget jobs as well as notify students when budget jobs become available.
The administration will respond to the presentation on April, 3rd. Check back next week as well as in next weeks issue of The Journal for more on these topics.
Share this post
