By Kaylee Lindenmuth,
News Editor
The Student Government Board voted on the possible removal of the board’s secretary, as well as the promotion of three clubs to maroon status, at its Tuesday, Feb. 13 meeting.
Secretary Kayla Hudak had reached three absences from meetings, which, according to SGB policy, is grounds for removal. In voting to allow the secretary to remain in her position, the executive board chose to vote by way of an open ballot, a change from its long-time policy of secret ballot voting on matters such as removing or appointing executive board members.
At the meeting, parliamentarian Glenn Roedel initially made a motion for a vote by secret ballot, seconded by treasurer Dylan Wingrove. However, Lucas Yerger raised a motion to vote in the open, which passed unanimously.
“I just wanted to apologize for my three absences. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been on SGB since my freshman year,” Hudak said prior to the vote. “For those of you who don’t know why I missed three meetings, I was out of the country for the first week of classes… and last Tuesday, I was in Philly taking the GREs. I was supposed to make it back in time, but I did not.”
The board voted unanimously to keep Hudak on the board.
In other business, three student organizations were brought up for “maroon status.”
According to SGB policy, maroon status is granted to organizations that “serve the general purpose of the (KU) community by providing opportunities for development in such aspects of life as intellectual, aesthetic, physical, spiritual and social, has (an approved) mission statement and bylaws, serves special interests of its membership as indicated by the organization’s Mission statement, and has met University registration requirements as determined by the McFarland Student Union and Involvement Services for a minimum of one full semester or 15 consecutive academic weeks.”
SGB-granted privileges given to maroon status organizations include the use of SGB-owned equipment and resources for organization functions, including vehicles, a copier, a fax machine, the SGB office telephone, the use of the “SGB-Maroon Status” title, use of campus mail, use of university facilities for programs and meetings, use of bulletin boards, activities calendar, and KU Daily Brief for advertising which conforms to regulations, participation in campus sales and solicitation process and other appropriate privileges as approved by the SGB and the President of the University.
The first organization up for maroon status was Students for Life Kutztown.
“The mission of Students for Life Kutztown is to establish an active pro-life culture among the youth of our community by educating our peers on life and by actively promoting the right to life for all persons born and pre-born,” Roedel said, reading the organization’s mission statement.
“We’re here to, obviously, spread a pro-life message and a culture of life on our campus, but most importantly to help parenting and pregnant students on our campus,” organization founder Jacqueline Foran told the board. “The reality is that 26% of all undergraduate students are parenting, so we want to be a source of support for them.”
A unanimous vote, with the exception of a single abstention, granted the organization maroon status.
The Association for Mid-Level Education was second to receive a vote for maroon status.
“The purpose of this organization is to create opportunities for students interested in mid-level education. These opportunities include career development, community service, and hands-on experience,” said Roedel, reading the group’s mission statement.
“We host seventh and eighth grade day, one in the fall, and one in the spring, where we have middle schoolers from Upper Dauphin and Nitschmann Middle School come up and they’re on campus all day,” said the treasurer of AMLE to the board. “We go to Grim, and we show them a laser light show, so we just show them around Kutztown and tell them more about college.”
Maroon status was awarded to the organization unanimously.
Finally was Library Outreach Leaders, whose mission statement, according to Roedel, reads “The purpose of this organization shall be to be the voice of the student body for the Rohrbach Library. We shall seek to improve and innovate services that are associated with the library.
“We are basically an advocacy group for the library. We’re trying to make it a more user-friendly place for the students,” said organization president Lisa Kilpatrick to the board.
The organization was approved for “maroon status” with Wingrove voting no, and one abstention.
In other business, SGB allocated up to but not exceeding $70 from the operating account for business cards, allocated up to but not exceeding $350 from the private account for T-Shirtsand reimbursed Braden Hudak $86.61 from the operating account for supplies for a chocolate covered strawberry fundraiser, with one no vote and two abstentions.