There was a lot of positive energy Monday night at the first Student Government Association meeting of the year.

SGA President Emily Borra commented that it had been one of her goals to increase participation in the government, and was pleased with the number of senators and students who had come to speak in Open Student Forums.

Chancellor Renee Wachter reported what might be good news; with the revenue projection better than was predicted, there should be no reason for more budget cuts as had been feared. The list of cuts made to the UWS budget was presented to Senator Robert Jauch and Representative Nick Milroy at a meeting on Monday.  Wachter said that she was hoping that the information that was presented and the improved budget projection would give Sen. Jausch and Rep. Milroy the ammunition they needed to argue the amount of the budget cut down.

Chancellor Wachter also reported that Senator Jauch has been concerned about the voter ID issue, and wanted to know what the university has been doing to make sure students are registered to vote. Vice President Anderson replied that the Student Government is working on plans to promote voter education.

Dr. Stephen Rosenberg, speaking for the Faculty Senate Committee,  reported that starting with this current catalog cycle, there are many changes to the catalog. One of the changes that came out of Administration regards the information as to exactly which semester a given course will be offered. For technical reasons, the system in use now doesn't keep track of such detailed information. The decision was made to ban that information from being displayed.

“We felt that knowing when a course would be offered would be beneficial to everyone, especially for Academic Advisement...to plan their schedules,” Rosenberg stated. The Faculty Senate Committee has passed a resolution asking that this information be restored, and a cost/benefit analysis should be performed regarding upgrading the information system.

SGA Vice President Jeff Anderson talked about Superior Days, an opportunity to go down to the State capitol in Madison to lobby for northern Wisconsin from Superior to Michigan. There will be a training session in lobbying on February 5th at 5 p.m. in the Yellowjacket Union. Superior Days will be February 20-22. No one at the meeting had current information on funding.