In its attempts to make Butler University a greener campus, the Student Government Association’s Green Operations Committee has a found a way for Butler to protect the environment while making the university some extra cash on the side.

The Green Operations Committee has become involved with a company called TerraCycle, which pays for hard-to-recycle items and turns them into products sold in retail stores.

After hearing of other college campuses’  use of TerraCycle, the Green Operations Committee decided to implement it at Butler in order to become a greener campus.

The Green Operations Committee has set up TerraCycle collection points across campus in order to collect ink cartridges, disposable cups and empty health and beauty products.

Alex Tallentire, SGA’s Green Operations Committee coordinator, said the program is a semester-long process, which has been implemented over the last two weeks at Butler.

“We’re working with three products right now,” said Scott Nemeth, SGA vice president of administration, “but if the program becomes more popular, we hope to expand to other hard-to-recycle products”

The materials are then sent to TerraCycle to be recycled, and Butler receives payment for the waste.

Nemeth said funds received from the TerraCycle program will go back to SGA in the Green Operations account, which funds green projects around campus.

Last week, Student Government Association assembly members voted to not release future election results.
We at The Collegian think the benefits of releasing  the presidential election results outweigh the cons.
Across the nation, many other campuses release detailed numbers and results of student association elections.
Butler’s SGA argues that  releasing its election results could hurt the losers’ feelings and negatively affect their future job prospects.
By not releasing the vote, losers are saved from embarrassment.
Some SGA members have a different opinion about the election results.
Al Carroll, last year’s SGA president, tweeted that the results should be released.
The head of the national SGA suggested that the information be released to show transparency.
Life is about trial and failure.
Losing is an educational process. If the results are kept concealed, the losers cannot learn from their losses.
If candidates want to run next year, they cannot learn what they need to do to enhance their campaign if the numbers are kept secret.
SGA is stunting the growth of its own organization because it wants to protect people.
Most of the candidates are fine with releasing the results. Unfortunately, the vote is not in the candidates hands. The vote is up to the entire assembly, which almost unanimously voted to not release detailed vote numbers.
Releasing the vote would give legitimacy to SGA and earn it more respect from students.
A large portion of the student body fails to vote in SGA elections. Supporters of keeping the vote a secret say that will send more people  to vote.
Transparency by SGA would assure students their votes count.
Releasing the votes will give the association more credibility and people would take them more seriously.
SGA is abusing the trust that the student body has empowered them with.
Students vote for leaders to be responsible for representing the student body each year but the organization cannot even reveal by how many votes a candidate won or lost.
Students trust SGA with more than $750,000 every year, the least the association could do is tell students the election votes.
By concealing the result, SGA prohibits   students from not knowing if the election is legitimate or just a popularity contest. The students results and the student’s money are what empower SGA.
SGA owes it to the students to release the election results.

Student Government Association’s Election Oversight Committee proposed a resolution to permanently allow only members in at least their sophomore years onto the committee, going against last year’s temporary suspension of the rule to allow freshmen.

This decision comes after a review in SGA, and the assembly will vote today on whether to make the rule a permanent change.

“Last year the EOC got into some trouble when they didn’t really look at the constitution very closely when forming the committee,” SGA President Mike Keller said.

“They added freshmen when the constitution specifically said that they can’t be.”

Sophomore James Schubert, who served as chairman on last year’s EOC as a freshman, said he thinks this was the wrong decision to make.

“I think they are going to struggle to get participation now,” Schubert said. “Freshmen tend to be the least busy, and they have the best opportunity to get involved.”

Keller said the process would benefit from members of the EOC having a year of experience before being on the committee because collegiate elections are different from high school.

“I think it’s definitely a good permanent change,” Keller said. “It is for the best for the committee to have older students taking on a serious role.”

Schubert was planning on being a part of the committee this year but said his plans have changed.

“I will be withdrawing my name because of that decision,” Schubert said.

PuLSE Office Director Caroline Huck-Watson assists the EOC in the decision process and said she believes that this resolution is good for the school year.

“Based on what our participation looks like I can say that this year, having older students is fine,” Huck-Watson said. “But I can see another one-year suspension just in case we need to add more students.”

She also said she doesn’t believe this resolution to be a result of poor performance from previous years.

“I can see why SGA thought this resolution would be a good thing by having experienced students,” Huck-Watson said, “but I personally could see EOC being a good way for freshmen to get involved.”

Butler University’s Student Government Association is making the right decision to overturn the rule allowing freshmen to be on the Election Oversight Committee.

Sophomore James Schubert was able to serve as the chairman of the EOC, and another freshman was allowed on the committee, last year because SGA suspended the rules, Schubert said.

SGA holds too much power and is too professional to skip over laws whenever they make its processes simpler.

“SGA elections on the collegiate level are very, very different from what people ever experienced in a high school setting,” SGA President Mike Keller said.

“We figured it would be best to keep the committee to sophomores and above. That way, everyone on the committee would have at least seen an election happen.”

This is logical because not only are the freshmen not fully informed as to how SGA works, they might not know what is best for Butler due to their short time here.

Being a student for a year will give them a better perspective of what the school needs and how different situations should be handled.

“It is probably best for the committee that it is mostly older students who are on (the committee) just because it’s a very serious role,” Keller said. “We have to deal with a lot of high stakes and, at times, drama.

“The experience that you have from just knowing how things go is really vital.”

It is good SGA is permanently changing the procedures and policy so no future bypassing of laws can happen again and cause disruption.

Freshmen should be allowed to examine and sit in on the committee  meetings for purely observational purposes.

That way, if they choose to be on the board the following year, they will bring some direct committee experience.

In fact, it might be good if SGA passed a law that would prohibit freshmen to be members of all Butler committees.

Freshmen can and should be allowed to sit in on these committees’ meetings to know how they function.

Ultimately, this would allow smoother transitions between administrative and committee shifts in SGA.

Otherwise, SGA is risking avoidable miscommunications and missteps.

Freshman Kathryn Cleary  started Dawgs for a Cause two weeks ago to show Butler University’s dining services what students really have a taste for.

Cleary said she immediately saw the food offered by dining services was not up to par.

After starting the group, Cleary tried boycotting dining services for eight days. During her boycott, she said she ate bagels, cereal, Easy Mac and food from Starbucks instead.

After eight days, she went back to eating in the dining halls because relying on other options became too difficult.

To meet its goals, the group has made a Facebook page, gone to the presidential student forum and had a meeting with faculty. The meeting was attended by student affairs staff, members of the dining services and Student Government Association.

The Facebook page discusses “Issues At Hand,” which include dining options being open later, healthier and more diverse food and greater emphasis on cleanliness and proper handling of food by employees.

The Facebook group has 568 members.

Sophomore Sara Doverspike is on the Dawgs for a Cause committee and joined after seeing her fellow students’ enthusiasm.

“Kathryn was really passionate about it, and it made me realize that if students have passion about something and if we can stand together for a common cause, we can see the changes that we want to see in the school,” Doverspike said.

Freshman Amanda Mansard, who is also on the committee, said there is room for improvement in the food, and the group can be a form of communication.

“It’s just a great source for feedback, especially for the SGA so they can see where the people’s thoughts are about the food on campus,” Mansard said.

Mansard also has personal reasons for joining the group.

“I’m gluten-free and soy- and dairy-free as well, so I know how hard it is to find different options to eat here,” Mansard said.

Scott Nemeth, SGA vice president of administration, was in attendance at the presidential student forum.

Nemeth took an interest in the group and connected Cleary to the Council on Presidential Affairs.

“I think that Dawgs for a Cause is going to produce a lot of student leaders on campus,” Nemeth said.

Sally Click, dean of student services, said dining services has existing ways for students to provide opinions, one of them being the Butler Cuisine Bureau, and there is a possibility of the two  groups working together.

Cleary said the group hopes to expand in numbers and to promote student awareness.

More information on the group can be found on its Facebook and Twitter pages.

The proposed parking garage at Butler University will likely add a significant amount of housing—in addition to parking spaces—if it is approved by the Board of Trustees.

Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson presented preliminary sketches of possible new rooms at a Student Government Association meeting last week.

“We wanted to get (students’) feedback on that design and offer any feedback on that, the location and amenities,” Johnson said.

One sketch displayed a four-person room containing two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room area and a kitchenette.

Johnson called the sketch a blend between a Residential College room and an Apartment Village room.

This type of housing would target sophomores, as the university is going to be lacking living space for second-year students on campus next year “to the extent of about 280 to 300 beds,” Johnson said.

Scott Nemeth, SGA vice president of administration, said students present at the SGA meeting responded positively to the plan Johnson presented.

“I would say that students were, overall, enthusiastic about it,” Nemeth said. “I thought LJ provided a lot of insight to a project in its infancy, which is cool to do.”

SGA President Mike Keller said students brought up a few concerns, namely regarding cost and the furnishing of living rooms.

Keller said a narrow majority expressed their desire that the living rooms not be furnished, primarily because of the cost to live on campus now.

“The housing across campus is just really expensive,” Keller said. “Some people feel like they have to commute or live off campus to escape it.”

Another reason for this request was the idea that, as sophomores, students are getting to a point where they might like to have their own furniture instead of taking care of university property, Keller said.

Other questions posed by students involved being able to open windows in the rooms and the potential views rooms would have.

The proposed project has undergone a healthy amount of change since it was first revealed last spring.

While the original plan was to construct a parking garage that would house as many as 1,000 vehicles, that same building could now host multiple facets of university life.

“I think that (the project) has just developed into this multi-purpose facility that kind of meets the needs of parking, housing and retail space, which are all things students have been asking administration to do for a while,” Nemeth said.

Keller said the proposed complex’s

construction would likely be completed by fall 2014 if approved.

However, the Board of Trustees still has to approve the plan, and Ben Hunter, chief of staff, said it is not up for action at this moment.

One way or another, Butler’s master plan calls for the university to add more housing sometime in the near future, Johnson said.

Additionally, Butler officials would like to do extensive renovations in Ross Hall and Schwitzer Hall around the same time.

Johnson said Butler administrators would continue to gauge student opinion as new information surrounding the project becomes available.

Keller, Nemeth and other members of the SGA board have consistently been invited to participate in meetings with Butler officials and building architects.

“Once things get a little bit closer to where we’re determining what we want to be (in) the retail on the bottom or what the rooms have in them, (Butler officials) have made their intentions known that they’re going to be looking to us as students to be able to fill them in on what students want,” Keller said.

Part of Nemeth’s SGA job is to encourage Butler administrators to attend assembly meetings.

Nemeth arranged for Johnson to attend last week’s meeting for the Council on Presidential Affairs topic of the week and said he believes Johnson will be at future meetings too.

“As we get closer to the project, they’ll probably hold more public forums,” Nemeth said. “I think they’re extremely important because not only do they inform students of what’s going on, but it really allows them to provide insight.

“That’s crucial because I think the administration can sometimes not understand exactly what our wants and needs are.”

Johnson agreed that public forums are crucial at Butler, noting that the original design for Apartment Village was altered in some ways thanks to feedback from students.

“It’s imperative that we go ahead and have these types of gatherings and go even beyond the formal lines we have through SGA and students sitting in on various committees of the Board of Trustees,” Johnson said.

Keller said that although many of Butler’s current students will not get the opportunity to live in the planned housing, they should look forward to the potential project.

“I hope that students see this as an opportunity,” Keller said. “They should really be excited about this project because it’s going to be really correcting a lot of the issues students have with the campus.”

The Election Oversight Committee’s policies regarding Student Government Association elections are under review for possible adjustment.

SGA President Mike Keller said a few issues with the policy need to be brought to attention.

Last year, the election was separated into two elections after four candidates were narrowed down to two, but the rules did not allow for the election results to be released.

“Both myself and the other candidate thought that those results should be released,” Keller said, “but the EOC stuck with the old rules.”

He said the current rules prohibit anyone who is not registered as a campaign volunteer to post about a certain candidate on social-networking sites.

“Not allowing people who aren’t registered volunteers to post anything at all makes the whole ordeal inconvenient, and I think that needs to be looked at,” Keller said.

James Schubert, last year’s EOC chairman and a current member, said the election results not being revealed last year was an issue, but he said other issues need to be looked at as well.

“I think freshmen need to be allowed on the committee,” Schubert said, “because last year, I and another freshman were allowed on, and that should be permanently allowed in the rules.”

Caroline Huck-Watson, PuLSE office director, said she will help the EOC with issues and provide historical context if issues have been brought up in the past.

“We will take a look at the guidelines and review them,” Huck-Watson said. “One thing that is not within the guidelines as of now is the release of election results, so we will review that.”

She said the committee has four of the seven needed members. Once the committee is full, the review process will begin.

“I don’t want to have any part in the review process,” Keller said. “I want the EOC to look through the policies, make recommendations, then pass them on to SGA to vote on and get the new rules set in stone this semester.”

Plans for a residence hall and parking garage have come to light.

Vice President of Student Affairs Levester Johnson unveiled a few residence hall floor plans at the Student Government Association meeting on Oct. 24 for representatives to discuss.

Administrators and SGA have a huge opportunity to connect to students by involving them in the planning process.

This change can bring the community together by incorporating everyone’s voice while developing the building.

To allow this public forum to happen, administrators, SGA officials and anyone involved in the development process need to market the events.

If and when administrators publicly present blueprints for this project, they should inform the entire student body so everyone can voice an opinion.

Students have a deep and undeniable stake in this project.

Students invest in university projects with tuition dollars.

Finances aside, students have several other reasons to be involved in this process.

If students feel they have a direct impact on aspects of the building, they will likely feel much better about the future state of the university.

The idea of leaving a visible legacy is especially appealing for students.

It would be incredible to return to Butler as an alumnus and point out a building that you helped create.

Perhaps most importantly, the student body’s college  experience would bring a needed perspective in how the building is constructed.

Students may have a different opinion than administrators and trustees about how the project should develop.

Due to the high stakes students have in this plan, the administration must ensure that students have many opportunities to voice their ideas.

Butler University’s small size and connectedness make it simple to gather student input.

Administrators could send out a survey over BUmail to get ideas from students.

They should also use BUmail to publicize future meetings and events about the developing projects.

More public forum events, similar to President Jim Danko’s discussion about the Student Strategic Vision last week, should be formed to discuss these changes.

If another discussion about developing building plans happens at SGA, members could let campus know through the organization’s Twitter account.

When these significant discussions happen at SGA, officers should publish the minutes through either the Butler Connection or BUmail for those who miss the meeting.

No matter how the leaders on campus decide to incorporate the student body in these decisions, they should not pass up the opportunity to do so.

Otherwise, they miss a chance to bring the Butler community together to make vital positive changes for the community.

Butler University students need to recognize that the Student Government Association does much more than entertain students.

Students can and should do more to make their college experience the best it can be.

This cliché does not simply refer to concerts and extracurricular activities but also to activism and making the university a better place for future students.

More specifically, students should ask SGA to develop and protect diversity groups, to lobby for the university’s commitment to a liberal arts education and to build a healthy neighborhood around the university.

Many people distract SGA from examining every one of these important arguments by turning these issues into matters of personal responsibility.

This obsession with individualized duty distracts the student body from the way college structures and institutions affect the lives of everyone in the community.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking to a friend about a frustrating experience I had.

An organization on campus had essentially cost me money out of pocket through what I thought was carelessness.

I often forget this friend is a member of an SGA board.

But when she heard my story, she immediately said she would speak to higher-ups in the university about it.

My specific experience is honestly irrelevant.

On a larger scale, though, this is what SGA is about: solving the problems of students.

It is called Student Government Association for a reason.

There is nothing dramatic about using government to fight for a better student experience.

So students should certainly feel they can ask for better concerts and events—if that is truly the extent of their needs.

But the government can also make recommendations to the administration.

While a student body president cannot demand everything of university officials, he or she can—and does—speak as the voice of the student body.

The president could address campus concerns about issues like our curriculum if we asked him or her to.

At a minimum, SGA should be a preparation for “real” government.

But students should also expect more than just play-acting at being adults.

This is not a criticism of SGA, instead this is a call to the student body that frequently seems to be apathetic about the larger issues.

It seems there is no end to opinions on Smashmouth’s performance last month.

Ask the same impassioned students about the issue of a professional curriculum versus a liberal arts emphasis in the university, and some people shrug apathetically.

Politics, whether they exist on the international, national or university level, matter.

Shirking local politics has dangerous implications for the national arena.

There is no opting out of political life—authorities and institutions define what people are allowed to do, whether citizens participate or not.

In the words of the philosopher Michel Foucault, “You should ask someone who is not interested in politics…Why, damn it, are you not interested?”

Butler University student organizations are for the students by the students, and the process to receive funding is no different.

Any recognized student organization does not necessarily receive funding from the university, Caroline Huck-Watson, PuLSE Office director, said. It is the student organization’s responsibility to look for sources for funding.

One way student organizations can get funding is by applying for Student Government Association grants.

The SGA Finance Board and Grants Committee started looking at grant applications last week, said Derek Friederich, SGA vice president of finance. Four grants have been approved so far.

Student organizations can apply for four types of grants: general-purpose grants, event grants, R.E.A.C.H. grants and club sports grants.

“A lot of organizations really do rely on those (grants),” SGA President Mike Keller said. “The money they have at the start of the year is really not enough to do some of the things that they want to.”

Applying for grants is a multi-step process, Friederich said.

First, a student organization interested in a grant will fill out the online application and budget form on SGA’s website.

That application will be submitted to the Grants Committee and a member will add that application to a pile of applications to be considered.

The Grants Committee and Finance Board hear four grant request presentations per week, Friederich said. The organization will give a brief presentation about why they want the grant. The committee will then ask the organization questions to find out if the money will be put to good use.

“It is the students’ money,” Friederich said. “We check to make sure efforts are being made toward bettering the campus in some way.”

The 11 individuals on Grants Committee are the only people who vote on the grant applications. If a grant is awarded to an organization, the money will be in that organization’s account at the PuLSE Office the next day.

The PuLSE Office oversees the accounts of all registered student organizations. The financial transactions of an organization happen there, with the exception of club sports, which are handled through the health and recreation department.

Huck-Watson said, along with SGA grants, student organizations could get funding from their own fundraising efforts or also from grants outside the university.

A representative from a student organization can come in for a cash advance, which is money taken out ahead of time for an activity or supplies a group needs if it have the money in its account.

The representative from the organization must fill out a form with information about who they are and the amount of money they want. That form is then taken to Student Accounts, as the actual money is not kept in the PuLSE Office, Huck-Watson said.

After the money is spent, the representative must go back to the PuLSE Office with the receipts from transactions and any change  left over.

The PuLSE Office can also be used to pay organization’s invoices or reimburse students in an organization who have used their own money for something, Huck-Watson said.

On the 15th of every month, the university puts out cumulative financial reports so students can see how much they’ve been spending throughout the year, Huck-Watson said. But students are expected to keep a real-time budget to keep track of their spending.

Huck-Watson said the PuLSE office holds meetings at the beginning of each year required for all student organizations to inform them of the different policies and financial responsibilities they have as a student organization.

The PuLSE Office will work with organizations if funding issues arise, Huck-Watson said. It is handled on a case-by-case basis to figure out how the issues happened and how it can be fixed.

SGA also requires student organizations to be accountable for their grants, Friederich said.

Organizations who receive event grants must submit an accountability report to the Grants Committee showing the receipts so the committee can match it up with the budget to make sure the money was used how the organization said it was going to be used, Friederich said.

General purpose grants are subject to random audits throughout the year, Friederich said.

The entire SGA budget comes from the activity fee students are required to pay, Keller said.

Student government receives about $180 of the $288 student activity fee. The rest of the money goes to each individual class, athletics and into a pool to be divvied up between the different organizations, Keller said.

Keller said he thinks the activity fee is set at the correct amount.

“Our only mission is to be an advocate and provide programming for the students,” Keller said. “It’s a really solid investment, especially if you’re someone who takes advantage of all that SGA offers.”

Huck-Watson said she thinks the fee is doing its job.

“From my perspective, I don’t think the fee needs to be raised,” she said. “At this point, the fee is meeting the needs of the students.”

The total SGA budget is $748,409 for this year, Friederich said. There is $55,500 in the grants budget.

The grants are awarded first come, first served, so organizations should apply early, Friederich said.