On Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, Washburn Student Government Association gathered for their weekly meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Kansas Room of the Memorial Union. In celebration of the upcoming holiday of Halloween, WSGA met with a majority of their members in costume.

Ariel Smith, special events director for WSGA, reported that Homecoming is halfway done, and the remaining events for Homecoming were: Yell Like Hell on Thursday, After Hours on Friday, as well as the Homecoming Parade, Tailgate, and Football Game on Saturday. Smith has been planning this event since April and is very happy with the turn-out, especially because Washburn was unable to throw a Homecoming event last year.

“We have put a lot of time into this, and it has gone even better than I expected.” Smith said, “I really wanted to make it special for them [students].”

Wyatt Carter, the organization’s communications and marketing director, reported that he has been working on and posting homecoming graphics on WSGA’s social media. He also said that the Instagram giveaway finishes on Friday and has been met with a huge amount of student involvement.

Megan Dorantes, diversity and inclusion director, reported that she has been working to organize events for Native American Heritage month this November. Dorantes also announced that she finished the newest episode of the podcast she runs on behalf of WSGA. It can be found on Spotify and is currently called yourWSGA, but she also announced that WSGA intends to change the name soon.

The past two episodes from October were all about WSGA and interviewing the students involved and next month they will feature first generation students at Washburn and their experience so far. The second will be about the importance of voting. She also announced that the final practice for WSGA’s performance at Yell Like Hell would be right after the meeting that day.

“I am looking forward to Yell Like Hell the most, because, surprise, surprise, we will be participating in it, which I am very excited about!” Dorantes said.

Elizabeth Ngatia, diversity and inclusion chairperson, reported that the plan regarding stickers for Native American Heritage month has changed and stickers will now be bought from Native American artists in an effort to support Native American people beyond raising awareness.

SB 21-22 #056, Physical Therapists Assistant Club requested $3,000 in funding from WSGA in order to purchase a course program that is designed to help PTA students pass their exam on the first attempt and at higher scores. The representative of the PTA club explained that this course is incredibly beneficial to Washburn in order to keep the reputation of highly credible physical therapy graduates, and that the course was funded by WSGA in previous years. Motion passed.

Roll Call: What will you be doing this Halloween? While several people were unsure of their plans or planned to opt out of dressing up in costume, there was a large majority with costume plans, and some popular ideas were: a group costume of dressing up as fruits like a strawberry, pineapple, and watermelon, various arrangements of the main characters in Scooby Doo, an elderly grandmother, a 1920s mobster, and the TikTok famous “Oh no, our table! It’s broken!” kid with a partner dressed as the broken table.

Edited by: Kyle Manthe, Simran Shrestha