At the Washburn Student Government Association sixth meeting on Oct. 4, 2023, cabinet chairs and senators gave updates on their committees, voted on budget requests and President JuliAnn Mazacheck joined to discuss the Washburn strategic plans.
Samurai Berry, campus and community affairs director, noted that Can Emporia is coming to an end Oct. 6, 2023.
Sierra Jetter, health and wellness director, announced a post will be made on WSGA’s Instagram that is a “Crash Course: Bods In The Kitchen.” Jetter will also be making a post about Can Emporia, Bods Feeding Bods as an informational post to keep students updated.
Emma Froese, communications and marketing director, hinted at a project WSGA and Student Media may be working on together.
“I have been working a lot with Student Media. We’re trying to get something put together that’s pretty exciting, but I’m not gonna announce it quite yet. So just stay tuned for that,” Froese said.
JoAnna Marks, diversity and inclusion director, has been communicating with Alan Bearman, dean of Student Success and Libraries, about getting the Washburn University website translated.
“They have delegated to an external company to update the page. So once they finish that then we can get started on getting the page translated,” Marks said.
Marks is also waiting on shelves for a food pantry in the Memorial Union underground, which will have food items and hygiene products available for all students.
George Burick, budget director, announced there were four budget requests for the meeting.
Gracie Postman came as a speaker for WU Women in STEM and Club Mathematica. WU Women in STEM placed two budget requests for a total of $922.50. This will cover food for two separate luncheons during their meetings Nov. 11 and 16. Club Mathematica requested $121 for their finals lunch Dec. 1.
Mary Pritchett, vice president of Washburn Choir, requested $1,350 for an event they are hosting on Friday Oct. 6. It is an All Kansas Choir event that will host 150 high school students and give them the opportunity to audition and learn new music.
All budget requests were passed.
During the public form part of the meeting President Mazachek joined to discuss the Washburn strategic plan which will benefit the campus’ future many years after the work is done.
“Part of the strategic planning process though, is really understanding where we are from, all of our different stakeholders perspectives and being able to build upon that to create something that’s new and better for the future,” said Mazachek.
Mazachek has been meeting with students, faculty and others to learn Washburn’s strengths and weaknesses. This will help them gather information to put towards the new strategic plan that will be sent to the Board of Regents Dec 7.
She asked the WSGA members to do a SWOT analysis by placing sticky notes with their thoughts to answer four questions about Washburn University.
“It is basically reviewing your organization through the lens of strengths, what you think your strengths are, what you think the weaknesses are, what you think opportunities are for the future in which the threats are,” Mazachek said.
For each category WSGA members had time to think about these questions before placing sticky notes with their ideas in each section. After they engaged in an open discussion about what was written on the sticky notes, they shared more of their ideas with President Mazachek.
Some of the feedback from the WSGA members for each section:
Washburn’s Strengths:
-Student lead programs
-Small classroom sizes
-Scholarship opportunities
Washburn’s Weaknesses:
-Credits not being transferred from other universities
-No signs on campus for where buildings are located
-Allocating funds for students and not buildings
Washburn’s Opportunities:
-Utilizing Washburn’s proximity to lawmakers
-Being close to rural towns and using that to Washburn’s advantages
-Hosting events at the farmers market
Washburn’s Threats:
-Housing affordability and transportation challenges in Topeka
-Not having Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion positions at a PWI university
-Smaller high schools not knowing about Washburn
Mazachek collected the sticky notes so the feedback could be compiled and used for the Washburn strategic plan.
The next WSGA meeting will be Oct. 18, all students are welcome.
Edited by Aja Carter and Jayme Thompson
