Senate approves additional $2,500 for Sower budget

Students at the Senate meeting listen to President Aaron Fosse report about the cross for the outdoor chapel. 

Photo credit: Kayla Korb

By Nora Betts

The Student Senate voted unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting to grant The Sower an extra $2,500 for its budget to help it with increased costs related to higher wages and expenses.

Two increases in the minimum wage and the costs of putting out print editions were factors, according to The Sower adviser Ellen Beck.

Junior Maddy Peters, Sower sports editor, said The Sower is the only Senate-sponsored organization that pays for student jobs.

“As far as I’m aware, The Sower is the only organization that gets money from Student Senate that is a campus job,” said Peters. “This is a job on campus. We are paying people to go out and do student journalism for Concordia Nebraska.”

Senate Treasurer Alec Johnston said the Senate would offer between $2,000 and $2,500 to The Sower.

“Accounting for planned expenses, we have at least $4,000, $4,500 left that’s not specifically budgeted for anything for the remainder of the year” he said.

Johnston said that granting additional money to The Sower is a one-time occasion that still allows the Senate to maintain wiggle room in its budget.

“I’m proposing that we give up to $2,000, $2,500 to the Sower to help keep them afloat as a special occasion,” he said. “This is not a recurrent thing, because it’s an unusual circumstance and Sower is something we want to maintain functionality of, still leaving around ($2,000) in the Senate budget.”

Law and Justice Club

The Senate also unanimously approved the Law and Justice Club’s request to become an official campus club.

Junior Jane Neuhaus, sophomore Quinlan Hendrickson, and freshman Jenna Schafer gave a presentation to the Senate about the events and speakers hosted by the club.

Neuhaus said the Law and Justice Club hosts monthly speakers, resume workshops, and events like the Clue murder mystery night, held in the 2023 fall semester.

She said the speakers cover topics ranging from criminal justice to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Whenever we do have speakers come, it’s not just about the courts or law enforcement or just the criminal justice area,” Neuhaus said. “We get a lot more into the social sciences as well with, like, advocacy and dealing with kids in the system, DHHS.”

Neuhaus said the average attendance for the Law and Justice Club’s monthly meetings is 10 to 20 people.

Once a club is officially Senate-sponsored, it may request a budget for the following school year.

Neuhaus said the Law and Justice Club will use Senate funds to host things like a police appreciation event and to pay for travel expenses to and from community service events.

Senate Elections

Senate officers also encouraged students to run for Student Senate positions later in the semester.

Johnston encouraged students to run for Senate officer positions since he, President Aaron Fosse, and Vice President Victoria Perry are graduating seniors and cannot continue to serve. Secretary Emma VanTol is a sophomore and will either run for reelection in the secretary position or run for the treasurer position, Johnston said.

Johnston and VanTol said they want Senate elections to be competitive.

According to Johnston, a student running for Senate office must be a full-time student, have good academic standing as verified by the Student Life Office, and have a minimum 3.0 GPA.

A student running for the president position must have been active in the Senate for at least two semesters, and a student running for the vice president, treasurer, or secretary position must have been active in the Senate for at least one semester. A student running for treasurer must also serve on the Budget Committee formed in the spring semester.

Senate officer positions are paid for five hours each week at the minimum wage, which is currently $12.

Students interested in competing in the election should talk to any of the officers, said Johnston.