By Lauren Beeman

Student Government Association’s agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting included: homecoming events, Franciscan Heritage Week events, future events planning, continuing discussion of constitution changes, and Senate input.

The meeting opened with discussion regarding homecoming events for the duration of the week.

President Gino Grivetti announced the approval of a $1,000 spending budget for the Student Government sponsored tailgate at homecoming.

Grivetti and the rest of the Senate intend to grill around 500 hot dogs at Saturday’s football game in order to boost attendance and student involvement.

“We want to make sure the people who don’t have a group to tailgate with who don’t have a group to go out with feel comfortable enough to come up to SGA,” Grivetti explained.

The SGA sponsored tailgate is just one of the ways the governing body hopes to improve student attendance and participation at sporting games. Senate members also proposed sponsoring themed sporting games.

Grivetti told the senators that he solidified a student section at the football stadium, and intends to establish student sections for all sporting events.

“If we have a viable student section…more people will be enticed,” Vice-President Mary Argana said.

The agenda then turned toward the discussion of Franciscan Heritage Week which traditionally occurs the week after homecoming and coincides with the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.

The Day of Service, which is scheduled for Oct. 4, 2017, also falls during Franciscan Heritage Week, and is a chance for students to earn service learning hours by volunteering throughout the community.

“I would highly encourage you all as senators to participate in the Day of Service…you really have nothing better to do than to do this,” Grivetti said.

As the meeting progressed, Grivetti also explained that SGA elections for this upcoming year will be held two weeks prior to Thanksgiving break. The newly elected officials will then be inaugurated two weeks before Spring break.

Grivetti also presented the Senate with a proposal from Quincy University’s President Phil Conover regarding the future of the Hawks Hangout.

The proposal includes plans to turn the Hawks Hangout into a “welcome center.” Another proposal includes transforming the vacant space into the new home of the QU bookstore.

“I feel like we should turn it into some type of entertainment center,” Senator Ernest Baker suggested.

Senator Josh Del Rosario recommended creating a suggestion box to gather student input and opinions about how the space should be utilized.

As the meeting segued into campus events, Grivetti began discussing SGA’s current budget.

According to Grivetti, SGA’s budget totals around $5,000 dollars and was cut in half from the previous years. Grivetti also explained that SGA still intends to acknowledge funding requests from campus clubs and organizations.

Grivetti announced that he intends to spend the entire budget provided to SGA and began talking about events he had planned for the rest of the semester.

“A non-negotiable event is the root beer kegger,” Grivetti explained. While the date for said event has not yet been established by the Senate, other goals for event planning include resurrecting previously popular events that have faded out of campus programming.

Grivetti and the Senate were asked by Conover to determine ten events that QU students would like to see happen on campus.

The meeting concluded with discussion regarding the state of a clause in the pending constitution.

Senator Trip Gibson proposed that senators get paid for serving on SGA. However, after a vote, senators decided to accept other forms of compensation instead of cash. Recommendations included a dinner at the end of each term.

Student Government hopes to have a finalized constitution in the upcoming weeks, prior to elections.

SGA’s next meeting will be held Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017, in the Francis Hall Board of Trustees Room.