By: Kate Luce
Staff Writer
Campus pride and student life are just two of the conversations that were held this past Friday. The Student Government Association (SGA) and significant members of administration came together to speak about the ways student life could be improved.
One of the first things that was covered in the latest SGA meeting was reality of campus pride. Kevin Shawshank, SGA president, brought up the point that a lot of students are proud of what they do or how far they have come, but not the campus itself. He brought up that hypothetically, if IU South Bend were to become its own school, not affiliated with IU, that students could hold more pride to the school.
Administration explained that the school would not be able to support itself. The IU system is so large, that this is the main way regional campuses support themselves. Salaries, faculty benefits and infrastructure plans are all supported by the IU system.
Most of the money used by IU South Bend’s other finances come from the community. Administration stated that is where the SGA’s energy should be coming from. The South Bend area is where most of the student population is from, and where they plan to stay after graduation.
Currently there is a three million-dollar, IU-wide campaign to improve regional campuses. IU South Bend’s has reached $24,000 of their $34,000 goal, which has gone into improving the Elkhart Center’s advanced health science center.
Within the next 20 years, architecture change is bound to happen to this campus, but it cannot happen with just student alumni donations and state money. Improvements are happening on campus now, especially with Northside and Dwyer Hall, but administration and the SGA would like to go further with improving campus facilities. It all comes down to funding, which is limited.
The SGA also spoke to administration about more events they would like to see that would attract students.
An exhibition basketball game with Notre Dame was one of the ideas that was brought up. Bethel College recently had one, but the issue is seeing if Notre Dame would be interested in taking IU South Bend on.
Another suggestion that also revolves around Notre Dame would be to host more events around their sports teams. The reality is, a lot of students are fans of the teams despite being in a IU school. The impact of them is felt community wide, and tailgating and other sports events could draw in more students.
After administration left, the SGA focused their attention to on other issues, but one sought to expand student participation with events.
Posting flyers for club activities and events in the bathrooms on campus might seem a strange, but Shawshank and the SGA talked about the benefits of implementing this.
The bathroom is used daily and other universities have the same system. Implementing one central location where events could be advertised regularly could help students become more active on campus.
