The student senate meeting on Oct. 10 began with a presentation from Xitlalli Villanueva, WSU’s vice president of diversity and unity.

Villaneuva gave the presentation from her position as the Utah Board of Higher Education’s sitting student board member.

Villaneuva highlighted the work she’s been doing with the board that’s helping to ensure important decisions about higher education involve the students themselves.

The Utah Board of Higher Education is composed of 18 citizens, all appointed by the Governor. Two of the members are students, one from a technical college and one from a degree-granting public college.

The committee meets regularly to discuss safety and equity initiatives as they relate to college campuses in Utah.

Villaneuva emphasized the importance of committees like this because they represent Utah’s willingness to let students be a part of big decisions.

“This shows us that the system does care about the student perspective,” Villaneuva said. “Not everything needs to happen from the bottom down.”

Next, Finau Tauteoli, WSUSA Pacific Islander senator and president of The Ohana Association, gave a presentation requesting funding for TOA’s fourth annual Pacific Islander college prep night.

“The purpose of our Pacific Islander college prep night is to connect with students, from the seventh grade through twelfth, to help them get a feel for what college is like and to have a mentor,” Taueteoli said.

Tauteoli said the funding requested from the student senate would go towards paying the Dakine Grindz food truck to cater the event taking place on Nov. 8.

The final presentation was given by athletics and club sports senator Kayden Houser. Houser’s presentation concerned a funding request made on behalf of WSU’s model UN club.

The model UN club’s funding request for $4,000 is meant to help cover expenses to send WSU model UN members to Kobe, Japan, for an international model UN conference in November.

Houser said the model UN club has raised $5,000 from its members, around $4,000 from the Provost’s office to cover the club’s hotel expenses and approximately $1,000 from other WSU departments.

No issues were brought forth by the meeting’s attendees during the issues forum portion of the meeting.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

This story has been updated to reflect accurate composition of the Utah Board of Higher Education.