The Student Government Association (SGA) met in the Frank G. Pogue Student Center Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. to discuss a new philanthropy project, vehicle replacement, a campus beautification project for the winter season and a fan bus to the Edinboro and West Liberty State football game this Saturday.
"We researched a number of philanthropy projects to find one no other student organization covered already," said President Jamie Lutz. "Working on this project is something we hope to do every year from now on."
SGA chose Operation Warm, a project out of Chadds Ford, Pa., that provides new recycled-fabric winter coats to children in need, to support fiscally and responsibly. Congress and executive board members plan to donate all proceeds from the SGA Store to order coats from Operation Warm.
Given the operation's new "Green Initiatives," SGA also plans to collect plastic bottles that Operation Warm will recycle to manufacture the coats before sending them to Edinboro.
After receiving the coats, SGA would then research different elementary schools and community areas in Edinboro to determine children's need and give out the coats subsequently.
"It kind of just happened," said Lutz, explaining SGA's prompt to undertake support for such a project.
"It was one of our only options because we technically didn't have a philanthropy group and we didn't want to copy another organization's idea."
After brief discussion and post-meeting plans to watch a promotional DVD, SGA Congress and executive board members passed the motion to adopt Operation Warm as their philanthropy project.
Other business called to attention included two eight-year-old SGA vans that have fallen into disrepair.
Director of Operations Mike Robel spoke with Lutz to the Congress in hopes of allotting $50,000 from the miscellaneous income account to replace the vans.
Several SGA executives mentioned the "bad condition" of the vans in question and passed the motion for the safety of students whose organizations would require the vans for travel.
Parliamentarian Ben Krutko took the floor soon after the previous motions to describe his "pet project" for the upcoming winter season. He requested $8,000 from miscellaneous funds to purchase winter decorations for the entire campus.
"All the snow makes Edinboro look really bland," Krutko said. "We've starting talking with the president's office a month ago and we think it will really increase school spirit."
Suggestions and unofficial plans for this project included a 20 to 30 foot "holiday tree" to place in front of the library, a six-foot tree at each official campus entrance and lights and festive ornaments just about everywhere.
"If everything goes according to plan, we could put up the decorations over Thanksgiving break and have a lighting ceremony, probably on a Tartan Tuesday," said Krutko. "I think if people see campus as a lighted, spirited, joyful place then they'll want to stay."
Robel interjected briefly to remind Krutko and the executive board to keep the decorations and ceremonies as diverse as possible with a predominant focus on the winter season instead of religion-based holidays.
"This idea is just rolling and getting better with each suggestion," Krutko said. "I would really like to see this happen and become and annual event. We have the opportunity to invite alumni and the community to be involved too."
One of the last topics of discussion was the motion to provide one bus for students to ride to West Liberty free of charge for Saturday's football game.
SGA has a first-come first-serve sign-up sheet for students interested, and the trip is also open to the general public for a fee of $5 per person. For more information, students can visit the SGA office on the second floor of the Pogue Student Center.
Prior to the meeting's adjournment, Krutko thanked Congress and executive board members for their budget allocations.
"Everything we allocated money for today really helps the campus," he said. "We're really excited about these upcoming events on campus and you should be proud of yourselves that you can go out and do things to make people on campus happy."
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