WSGA gains new directors

Washburn’s Student Government Association met for their weekly senate meeting Nov. 22, 2022. Marshall Meek, the interim president of Washburn University, addressed his accomplishments while at Washburn, yearly student budgets were discussed and WSGA gained two new directors.

Meek spoke at the meeting and addressed certain things he has accomplished during his two months at Washburn.

“I’ve been doing a lot of listening, and then I’ve been trying to categorize the things that I hear into one of three different categories,” said Meek. “Things I’m going to listen to and report, or just share with the next president of Washburn University, things that I’m going to listen to and make recommendations to the next president of Washburn and then things where I’m going to listen and take action based on what I’ve heard.”

Meek also spoke about what issues he has employed these strategies on.

“I would say most of our biggest initiatives right now is centered around enrollment management,” Meek said. “We’ve had a number of things that have come out just in the last couple of months, financial aid optimization, where we’ve completely revamped our scholarship grid. There’s been leadership and role changes in enrollment management, we’re working on a virtual tour right now, the list goes on and on … So that’s where I’ve spent a lot of my energy in the first two months.”

Two directors will be leaving WSGA: Trey LaRue, legislative director, as well as Sierra Jeter, diversity, equity and inclusion director. LaRue will be graduating at the end of this semester and Cameron Meseke, senator, will take on the role of legislative director. Jeter will be studying abroad and cannot maintain the position outside of the country, so JoAnna Marks, senator, will serve as the new diversity, equity and inclusion director. In addition to the change of directors for WSGA, Kati Woltje  was promoted to chairperson of the allocations committee.

Eric Grospitch, vice president of Student Life, attended WSGA senate. Grospitch mentioned that there was an increase in opioid use in Shawnee County. Because of this, he stressed the importance of safety to students to be aware of dangers of opioid use and to keep in touch with friends and family who use them.

“So please work with your friends and your peers that may dabble in some of these things, to help them really raise the safety level for our students,” said Grospitch. “We’re going to start a small subcommittee from Student Life to really look and talk about these safety issues as we move forward.”

Edited by Simran Shrestha, Aja Carter