Stu­dent Coun­cil Shuf­fles Around Bud­get

MISHAWAKA – On Mon­day, Feb. 24, Stu­dent Coun­cil voted unan­i­mously to trans­fer mul­ti­ple parts of the bud­get into the dis­cre­tionary bud­get. Ex­ec­u­tive Trea­surer Ja­cob Kersey said they are tak­ing $375 out of the fac­ulty ad­vi­sors’ fund and $900 out of the clubs’ fund. 

“That’ll put us at about $2700 [in the dis­cre­tionary bud­get],” Kersey said. “So, what we’re go­ing to do is we’re go­ing to keep the money that’s in up­per­class pro­gram­ming.” 

Com­muter Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bran­don Barnes asked if the coun­cil would get a raise if they spent the re­main­ing bud­get.  

Kersey said if the re­main­ing funds are spent, then they can pe­ti­tion for a 20% raise for next year. If they do not spend the re­main­ing funds, the school board could de­crease the coun­cil’s bud­get again. 

“Con­sid­er­ing the ma­jor amount of money we lost from last year in our bud­get, I think it’s wise to move it all into the dis­cre­tionary so…we don’t risk an­other big set­back,” Un­der­class Pres­i­dent Lacey Bark­dull said. 

Trans­fer­ring the re­main­ing funds to the dis­cre­tionary bud­get gives the coun­cil more lee­way to spend. Ex­ec­u­tive Pres­i­dent Paul Cooke of­fered the coun­cil’s un­der­class­men the op­por­tu­nity to re­quest an ex­ten­sion to their part of the bud­get.  

The un­der­class­men might need the fund ex­ten­sion for a planned Luau event on April 15; es­ti­mated costs for the event are more ex­pen­sive than they an­tic­i­pated. Kersey said the ex­ec­u­tive coun­cil will dis­cuss dis­cre­tionary fund dis­tri­b­u­tion in their next closed-door meet­ing. 

Bethel’s din­ing ser­vices will be pro­vid­ing food at the event. Bark­dull said she is wait­ing to hear back from Sodexo Gen­eral Man­ager Jim Metherd about the cost. 

Up­per­class Pres­i­dent Shelby Moody said last week’s car­ni­val event raised $101 in the pie-throw­ing game. Bethel Pres­i­dent Gregg Chenoweth do­nated a match­ing amount to the money raised. Moody said the money will be do­nated to­ward a full-meal event for Hope Min­istries. 

“We’ll also ac­tu­ally be serv­ing the meal for Hope Min­istries,” Moody said. “So, if any­body wants to serve, I’m go­ing to send out a big email to let you know what date.” 

Moody re­ported 125 stu­dents at­tended the event and the up­per­class­men spent $200 un­der bud­get. But the event lacked vol­un­teers, so she scram­bled around to help dif­fer­ent games. 

The up­per­class­men will be fo­cus­ing on their ef­forts for se­nior gift mov­ing for­ward. They need to fundraise $5,000 for the painted mural. Moody said they have fundraised $3,300 so far. 

“Tyler [Hop­kins] works for Emily Sher­wood’s of­fice and she has de­cided that we’re go­ing to send out an email to all the se­niors who haven’t…picked up their cap and gown,” Moody said. 

The email will ask the se­niors if they want to do­nate their hous­ing de­posit to the mural. If the up­per­class­men do not meet their goal, they will set up a table out­side the din­ing com­mons. 

The stu­dent coun­cil meet­ing also ad­dressed the re­cent au­dit done by Mar­cel­lus Tay­lor, CEO of Bloss­burg & Cedar LLC. Tay­lor ob­served and con­sulted Bethel on its di­ver­sity and in­clu­sion ini­tia­tives.  

Cooke said Vice Pres­i­dent of In­sti­tu­tional Ad­vance­ment Matt Lentsch is an­a­lyz­ing the in­for­ma­tion Tay­lor pro­vided. 

“I ac­tu­ally had a sep­a­rate in­ter­view with Mar­cel­lus and I re­ally ap­pre­ci­ated how he dealt with the in­ter­view and how wel­com­ing he was,” Cooke said. 

Cooke also said he talked to Chenoweth about the re­sults and how the coun­cil can help im­prove the cam­pus en­vi­ron­ment. 

Cooke an­nounced ex­ec­u­tive class elec­tions will take place on Mar. 26 and 27. In­ter­ested stu­dents should email Cooke, Ex­ec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent Han­nah Dar­ling or Ex­ec­u­tive Sec­re­tary Maudie Smith for more in­for­ma­tion. Ap­pli­cants need to be en­dorsed by other stu­dents and have a 2.5 GPA or higher.