Rob Aspholm, the chair of Civic Engagement Voter Engagement and Education-Advocacy, and Amy Gage, Director of Neighborhood and Community Relations, spoke about the importance of voting; Auxiliary Services Associate Vice President Mitchell Karstens noted the new public safety pillars; and the budget and club finance guidelines were discussed at the Undergraduate Student Government general council meeting on Sept. 23

Guest Speaker: Rob Aspholm and Amy Gage

Aspholm discussed potential collaboration between CEVEA and USG, which would assist in connecting students, faculty and staff to civic and community engagement opportunities.

“What CEVEA is designed to do is to encourage and coordinate democratic engagement efforts on campus and beyond the campus,” Aspholm said.

The efforts would include creating and coordinating events on campus, off campus and offering resources to educate students, faculty members and community members about voting.

Gage stressed that she wants students to vote, and she highlighted the importance of students’ choice to either vote at the location they grew up in or at St. Paul.

“I think that is something we might look to you all for some guidance on, like what do you want to do, because we want students to vote,” Gage said.

Guest Speaker: Mitchell Karstens

Kartsens addressed foundational pillars that contribute to a reimagining of public safety.

“President Julie Sullivan announced plans to combat racism on campus and one of the things that was a part of that was an external review of public safety,” Karstens said.

These pillars include: safety of campus, community engagement, educational outreach, commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, ongoing evaluation of policy and procedures, and operational evaluations for the action plan.

“We have done climate surveys of our internal and external groups and public safety, and now we are piling all of that data together,” Karstens said, “and instead of actually just talking about it, we want to actually do something about it.”

With the information collected by the surveys, an action plan was drafted for public safety and Karstens presented this draft to a number of groups to confirm that student groups and faculty groups thought the draft felt “right.”

Club Finance Guidelines

The council approved the fall budget, including $175,000 provided for club fund allocations.

Club funding will have a new request model. There is a flat rate of $40 per member and a flat rate of $100 per club for marketing expenses.

There will be extra accountability measures taken this fall with clubs, including requiring clubs to scan event passes for events and submitting end of semester audits to highlight the direct use of funding.

The TommieLink roster will be used as the basis of funding per club member.

“All those students that are on your roster actually have to accept being a member of your club,” Director of Campus Life Margaret Cahill said.

The council raised some concerns about people joining lots of clubs but not participating in them.

“We’re working on the education of clubs. It is not healthy to be in seven clubs because you’re not actively involved,” Cahill said.

Club funding requests were not discussed in this meeting.

Natalie Hoepner can be reached at hoep8497@stthomas.edu.