First meeting of newly elected USUSA Executive Council includes talk about diversity and budget proposals

Newly inaugurated members of the Utah State University Executive Council met for the first time Tuesday afternoon to discuss involving inclusion organizations in the application process and to vote on the proposed budget for the upcoming school year.

USUSA student body president Lucas Stevens opened the council’s first meeting by telling everyone how excited he was to work with them.

“Like I said at the inauguration, I’m thrilled to be working with you guys, and am genuinely so excited about this group,” he said.

The USUSA Executive council is chaired by the student body president and is comprised of six vice presidents, including the executive vice president, student advocate vice president, campus recreation vice president, student events vice president, campus diversity vice president and the graduate studies senator.

One of the topics discussed was how to get under-represented student groups involved in council and committee application processes.

“This year’s student body officers are really hoping to reach out to those students who have otherwise, kind of not been targeted,” campus diversity vice president Emilee Harmon said.

Harmon added the hope is to get those students to apply for different positions and committees.

“We want to show that we’re committed to diverse students and diverse backgrounds and experiences to make our cabinets and committees reflect the students of Utah State better,” she said.

Under-represented groups include freshman, graduate students and students from statewide campuses.

The Executive Council is currently working on proposals for how to reach under-represented groups, but Harmon said part of the initiative will be seeking out those students who usually don’t have people reaching out to them to apply for things.

The Council also passed the proposed budget for the upcoming school year.

One adjustment that had to be made for the budget was to incorporate for the budget cut of 1.2% across all student fee-receiving areas.

“We intended on drawing from the academic opportunity fund in order to pay for that deficit,” executive vice president Porter Casdorph said.

The 1.2% budget cut had to be imposed on all student fee-receiving areas to keep them from increasing.

According to Stevens, that direction came from the Utah Board of Higher Education and board of trustees after the decision was made to increase the USU Aggie Recreation Center fee by $6.50 per student.

“That fee was basically made to cover the deficit that the ARC was running on,” Lucas added.

Along with keeping fees flat, there are a few fees that were moved to be covered from other funding areas, he said. These include the surcharge on parking to cover Aggie Blue Bikes and the added tax on university travel to cover the Blue Goes Green initiative.

USUSA Executive Council meetings are open for all students to attend.

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