SGA Announces Outreach With Frostburg City Police, Funds Numerous Campus Events

On Thursday, Feb. 8, the Frostburg State University (FSU) Student Government Association (SGA) held its first general body meeting of the spring 2018 semester.  The meeting was held in room 111 of the FSU Lane University Center, and included several updates about SGA initiatives and passage of student organization funding packets.

The meeting opened with executive board remarks, and SGA President James Kirk announced that a successful meeting was held earlier in the day that included SGA executive board members and representatives from the Frostburg City Police Department.  The meeting was originally conceived to address the series of off-campus burglaries that occurred in the fall 2017 semester, and the meeting between SGA and City Police included information about how students should report crimes, how they can stay in contact with law enforcement to receive updates about their case, and how they can secure their residences against burglary.  SGA announced that it will be working with City Police to distribute this information to the student body via print and social media outreach.

President Kirk told The Bottom Line, “SGA is deeply appreciative of the Frostburg City Police for taking the time to meet with us and answer our questions about how to keep students informed about safety issues.  The City Police are committed to protecting FSU students, and we are grateful to have their cooperation moving forward to educate students about their rights and their options when protecting themselves from crime.”

SGA Vice President J Gourdin also spoke, and announced several upcoming service projects that SGA will be participating in during the spring semester.  These projects will include volunteering with SafeRide, the SGA initiative that provides weekend shuttle service around the campus and nearby Frostburg neighborhoods, and volunteering with the inaugural Derek Sheely Memorial Flag Football Tournament.

For committee updates, SGA Student Affairs Chair Ben Forrest announced the progress towards the SGA effort to introduce a student bereavement policy to the FSU campus. In addition, SGA Governance Chair Jenna Puffinburger announced that the recent student advising town hall, sponsored by the newly-formed FSU Advising Task Force, was successful in gathering valuable student feedback about the advising process on campus.

Following executive board updates, SGA passed a total of nine student organization funding packets, with every submitted packet being passed.  The off-campus funding packets passed included conference attendance expenses for Greek Council, Delta Sigma Pi, and the Society for Human Resource Management. United Campus Ministries received funding towards a spring break service trip from the SGA Alternative Break account.  On-campus funding packets approved included the Creative Minds’ Cypher event, Spectrum’s Master of the Arts event, Phi Beta Sigma’s Black Wall Street event, BURG Peer Education Network’s BURG Bash, and Visual Couture’s spring fashion show.

The next SGA meeting will be held on Thursday, Feb. 22 in the Lane Center Atkinson Room.  More information about SGA or event funding requests can be found in the SGA Office in room 223 of the Lane Center.