SGA voted 20-16 against a bylaw amendment that would have expanded the authorized use of the Student Activity Fee Allocation (SAFA) money to pay for events used to recruit students.

"The SAFA fee is for students, not prospective students," said Jack Phillips, SGA's executive vice-president of finance. Expanding the use of the money would mean less money for student organizations, Phillips said.

"If we don't fully fund events, they don't happen," Phillips said.

Senator-at-Large Michael Murphy said he opposed to the the amendment because he was concerned it was "overreaching" because the events are organized by students.

Senior Class President T.J. Beringer supported the amendment.

"It's important for us to keep the money that our students are paying in the hands of our students," Beringer said.

In other business:

• SGA members will meet with Hank Phelps to discuss expansion of the Student Center. SGA Executive President Austin Hall said the Student Center "is not big enough" and that "it's an issue of space."
• SGA added $5 to every students' Bearcard this semester to pay for up to 100 copies in Torreyson Library. SGA conducted a survey last fall and found that free printing was a central concern among students.

"This printing credit is something that students have been asking for and deserve to get," Junior Class President Paige Turner said. "I'm glad that the students can see their demands come to fruition and that SGA had something to do with it."

You can read the minutes of Monday's SGA meeting here.

That question was brought to the Student Government Association (SGA) this week in its final meeting of the semester. The senators were asked to consider eliminating fall break and using those days to make Thanksgiving break a full week.

The idea originally came up because fall break conflicts with a couple of freshman laboratory classes. During the discussion, several senators said they supported trading fall break for a longer Thanksgiving break. One senator said he liked the idea of making Thanksgiving break longer because it would allows students to spend more time with their families, especially for students who live outside the state.

T.J. Beringer, senior class president, said the scheduling conflict wasn't enough reason to change fall break and said he favored keeping the break.

Executive Vice President Spencer Sims agreed.

"I think that this is a tradition of UCA and it is something that the students have grown accustomed to," Sims said. "I think it is a treat to students and it helps students recuperate and come back in full force, and having a week break right before Christmas seems a little excessive."

SGA voted 31-3 in favor of keeping fall break.

A committee studying designs for the new seal told the Student Government Association (SGA) yesterday that they had narrowed the choices to a final design. In the next few weeks, the design will be reviewed by faculty and staff members, alumni, students and the administration. The committee will consider suggestions before finalizing the design. The new seal becomes official when it is approved by the Board of Trustees, which is expected in February.

The new seal design features a drawing of Main Hall in the center of the seal with the words "University of Central Arkansas" wrapped around the outer edge. It includes that year 1907, the year the university was founded, at the bottom of the seal. The previous university seal was an exact replica of the state seal with the words "University of Central Arkansas" added.

Austin Hall, SGA president and a student representative on the committee, said the committee spent months working on the design.

In other business, SGA approved, by a vote of 20-13, to allocate no more than $65 from SGA's general operations account to provide snacks for Green Week, an upcoming event sponsored by SGA's Green Initiatives Committee.

Some members of the senate objected because they said that giving money to the event could set a precedent for future requests. SGA turned down a request for $800 last month to provide food for a university function not affiliated with SGA.

Jack Phillips, SGA's vice president of finance and the head of the Finance Committee, said SGA has provided money for previous SGA events, including the Safe Walk event last week. Phillips said that SGA had $1,800 in its general operations account and could afford the $65 for food.

This is the actual container

It's called "Green to Go" and the Student Government Association (SGA) announced it at their weekly meeting last night. It's part of  Dining Services' initiative to be more environmentally friendly.

Here's how it works. You go to the cafeteria and buy a membership card for $5 from dining services. Whenever you want to get your food to go, you give the cashier the membership card and the cashier gives you a reusuable container for your food. When you are done with container, you take it to the cafeteria, Starbucks or Einstein Bagels and drop it off. The cashier there will give you a new membership card to use the next time. You don't have to wash the container but they ask that you scrape out all the remaining food.

Dining Services is starting with 300 containers but is prepared to buy more if students like the program. It's also available to faculty and staff.

In other business, SGA narrowed the choices for a new university seal to two designs. They plan to schedule an open forum to discuss the designs before making their final decision. We'll keep you informed.

Last April, SGA voted unanimously to create the committee because of concerns that student government wasn't meeting the needs of nontradition, international and transfer students. The committee will look for ways to get those students more involved.

The committee has five SGA members and six non-SGA members, which includes two students and four faculty members.

The new student members are Colby Qualls and Mary Walker. The new faculty members are Melanie Gizard, Liz Davis, Amy Fenning and Lawrence Mrozek.

SGA also voted unanimously to pay up to $2,500 for holiday lights to decorate the campus this holiday season, an annual ritual. Last year, SGA used white lights for decoration. However, its Campus Environment Committee suggested they replace some of the white lights with purple LED lights this year. The LEDs will complement the white lights, use less electricity and last longer than the white incandescent lights. The LEDs also are less expensive.

In other business, SGA announced that the meetings with departments that charge student fees will begin next week. SGA is asking every department that charges student fees to justify those fees to its Student Fee Advisory Committee. Interim President Tom Courtway has said that he supports the review of the fees.

Ryan Henderson, 18, a freshman from Little Rock, and Chavares Block, 19, a sophomore pre-engineering major from Dermott, were shot to death outside Arkansas Hall three years ago today. The four men, who weren't students here, charged in the shooting are all serving prison sentences. Kelcey Perry, 21, the man identified as the one who pulled the trigger on the gun that night, is serving a 40-year prison sentence for the murders.

The men drove onto our campus after a dispute with several of our students in Pine Bluff. Perry shot several times into a crowd of people outside Arkansas Hall, killing Henderson and Block and wounding nonstudent Martrevis Norman of Blytheville. None of them had been involved in the earlier dispute that prompted the shooting.

Tonight's event is being put together by the Office of Student Life, the Student Government Association and the National Pan Hellenic Council (NPHC).  NPHC has established a scholarship fund for a male student from Dermott High School and Hall High School, the former high schools of Block and Henderson, respectively. The recipient of each scholarship receives $1,000.

The NPHC will be raising money for the scholarships by selling purple rubber bracelets for $5 in the Student Center this week. Henderson and Block's initials and the anniversary date, Oct. 26, 2008, of the shooting are printed on the bracelets.

Interim President Tom Courtway and E.C. Maltiba, senior pastor at the True Holiness Saints Center in Conway, will be speaking at tonight’s vigil.  Maltiba came to campus the night of the shooting and met with the Henderson and Block families.  He also counseled students and staff at the time. Henderson's parents also will be attending.

SGA joined the staff senate and the faculty senate in passing resolutions supporting Courtway as president. Courtway has said that he would consider accepting the job if he had the support of SGA and both senates but wouldn't keep it more than three years. This is the second time in the past three years that he has been interim president.

The SGA resolution described Courtway as "an inspirational leader of our university" who has "already gained the trust and respect of the UCA community, taxpayers, and the state legislature." SGA said appointing Courtway would provide "stability" during the university's national accreditation process and give the Board of Trustees time to conduct a "thorough and deliberate search" for a permanent president.

"I, personally, am very proud of this resolution," Austin Hall, SGA president, said after the meeting.

In other business SGA rejected by a vote of 29-6 a resolution proposed by senator-at-large Michael Murphy to support the Occupy Wall Street movement that started Sept. 17 in New York by raising awareness of it on campus. Murphy provided statistics supporting the cause and asked that SGA use its resources, such as printing pamphlets, to provide more information to students.

Kelsey Riddle, a primary senator-at-large, spoke against the resolution.

"It is not the place of the SGA promote the movement," Riddle said. "We should not make be making the decisions of the students. This is not the right way to go about this precedent."

Representatives for the departments are to schedule an appointment with the commmittee sometime between Nov. 7 and Nov. 11. If a department doesn't meet with the SGA committee, the committee will present a resolution to the Board of Trustees recommending that the fee be removed.

Each department will be required to present:

• History of the fee
• Student input process for the fee
• Executive summary explaining the need for the fee.
• Five-year budget history
• Planned expenditures/projects for the year
• Expenditure report for fiscal year 2011, and what they expect for fiscal year 2012

Here is a list of the 15 fees that will be reviewed.

SGA also supported a resolution by the Faculty Senate to appoint Tom Courtway as the university president for a period not exceeding three years. Courtway become interim president last month after Allen Meadors resigned. SGA members said they trusted Courtway to run the university and plan to introduce their own resolution supporting Courtway next week.

In other business, SGA rejected a proposal to pay for food for a Leadership Council seminar by a vote of 27-7. The Finance Committee unanimously rejected the proposal, as well.

Alex Palencia, the entertaining host and director of Mexico 2000 Ballet Folklorico, explained the Mexican culture to the crowd. He said the state of Veracruz in Mexico is a beautiful area with plenty of sun, music and culture. He said most people in Veracruz wear white to repel the heat. He also explained the meaning behind each dance that night.

The first dance presentation featured a famous Veracruz song, danced by couples to the music of a harp, violin and guitar. The dancers were dressed in white and red. The men wore crisp white shirts with red bandanas around their necks, while the women twirled around in fancy white dresses and red headgear. They danced to La Bamba, in which a couple would tie a red ribbon into a bow with their feet to symbolize everlasting love. La Bamba is a fast-paced Mexican folk song.

Palencia also introduced the famous dance of Jalisco, another Mexican region. This was a cheerful dance that told the story of a charro courting a china poblana. In this dance, the women were clad in colorful dresses that aroused gasps from the crowd.

Many of the Mexican dances focus on traditional Mexican courtship. The audience was drawn to the brilliant dancing, jovial folk music and the burst of vivid colors in the women’s costumes. Their dresses were long, frilly and attractive. As they danced gracefully, their ornate skirts twirled beautifully around their feet.

“It’s exciting! It’s really good that students can see more about another culture,” senior Ana Aleacio said. “The costumes are really pretty.”

Aleacio wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the one-hour performance. The dancers received a big round of applause and many students stayed back in the auditorium to take pictures with them.

The dance company featured Mary Palencia, Yesenia Sanchez, Jimena Banda, Lorena Olvera, Lucrecia Vasquez, Miguel Arellano, Daniel Ferretiz, Cristopher Gonzalez, Saul Rosa and Alex Palencia. Palencia and his wife, Mary, are the founders of Mexico 2000 Folklorico Dance School. Mary Palencia also designed the costumes. The couple has over 32 years of experience in the performing arts industry and have trained, performed and toured with other well-known regional dance companies in Mexico and the United States.

The event was sponsored by Multicultural Student Services, the Mentorship Program and SGA.

A Mexican dancer twirls onstage in a stunning traditional outfit

The current seal, which mirrors the official seal for the state, has been used since UCA opened 104 years ago.

SGA will review proposed designs for the new seal Friday and select one. Ideas proposed by students, faculty and alumni include incorporating campus landmarks into the seal, such as Main Hall or Centennial Fountain.

SGA members said they felt it was time for the university to finally have its own unique seal.

In other business:

• SGA was informed that the Conway Police Department would take over the investigation of the Aramark scandal that led to former president Allen Meadors' resignation earlier this month.
• The finance committee allocated $4,108 to eight different organizations, including CMLA, Association of Future Alumnis, the Sword Club, Keep a Child Alive, Omega Psi Phi, Alpha Phi Alpha, Indian Student Association, and Environmental Alliance.
• In a 31-3 vote, SGA adopted an amendment to its bylaws lowering the amount of money that it could give to student organizations without a review by its finance committee. Under the new bylaw, the maximum amount was lowered to $1,000 from $2,500.