Featured photo by Siri Reynolds
Story by Siri Reynolds
MTSU’s Student Government Association held its second meeting of the semester Thursday, featuring a discussion with a special guest: Faculty Senate President and history professor Suzanne Sutherland.
After committee meetings held chair elections, members convened to discuss their visions for the semester. Senators filtered into the Parliamentary Room, and Vice President RJ Ware called the meeting to order, introducing Sutherland.
During her speech, Sutherland focused on how the student and faculty senators can work together. Students pointed out an issue they share with faculty: unused textbooks and online book fees that are often added to tuition unexpectedly.
“Some [faculty] are writing OER books in their free time to save their students money, and then they go hear about this fee, and it makes faculty enraged, honestly. It’s not something that faculty support at all,” said Sutherland.
After Sutherland spoke, officers delivered their reports. In his officer report, SGA President Michai Mosby reminded senators that the Forrest Hall Forum had been postponed “out of an abundance of caution” for the weather but emphasized that MTSU President Sidney McPhee was committed to hearing community voices on the topic.
“He’s very committed to making sure that we reschedule that, so it’s not canceled… I wanted to make sure that the record stated that clearly,” said Mosby.
Sutherland was also concerned with this topic, reminding students of the 2017 Faculty Senate resolution to encourage community members to refer to Forrest Hall as “the R.O.T.C. building.”
“We have free speech on this campus, and it’s our choice what we actually call that building when we talk about it, and that’s empowering in itself,” said Sutherland.
Officers elected a new Speaker Pro Tempore, Hannah Ferreira, and confirmed a new senator, Hunter Thornhill. Katrina Aguilar proposed Bill 1-24-F to create a student comment period during senate meetings. Although senators had time to discuss the bill, voting will not take place until next Thursday.
Siri Reynolds is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.
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