During its final meeting of the semester on Tuesday, the Student Government Association approved an action to give itself $63,000 in Student Activity (606) funding for homecoming activities that will include a top name concert for ETSU students.
In other action, the SGA passed two acts. The first will request that ETSU officials simplify student e-mail addresses, and the other will request that students be able to use their $25 printing accounts while in the library.
After an hour-long debate, the SGA unanimously approved funding for 2004 homecoming events that will take place in October.
The bulk of the money, which comes from the $4 student activity fee paid by students each semester, will be used to sponsor a “big name” concert for students. The band will be announced closer to the date of the event.
“This is the first homecoming without football,” explained SGA President Jarrod Suits, a proponent of the event. “You gotta come out with the bat swinging, and your mom in the back of the pick-up screaming ‘Hell, yeah!'”
Others urged the group to practice caution, however, saying that increased spending for this year’s Homecoming would reduce spending for future events and future homecomings.
“I think the concert is a great idea,” said Sen. Sam Barnes, “but it might be wise to remain sensible with the money we have.”
Proponents of the event pooh-poohed the conservatism, however. Explaining that much of the money for the concert would come from a surplus of 606 funds, Sen. Nathan Bays said, “We’ve been saving [this money] and hoarding it. This is the chance that we can get something out of it. We’re not losing anything.”
“The Superfund was originally established to bring a big concert to campus every four years and now we have a chance to do just that. The 606 fund was not meant to sit and garner interest because of a surplus; it was meant to be used in full…it cannot help anyone when it isn’t used.” said Sen. Josh Shearin.
“I ask you all who think we are extravagant to remember the students, they ultimately deserve this, ” Shearin said.
Although Homecoming Committee Chair Dawn Blackwell originally requested only $33,000 from the group, the price was raised when Sen. Nathan Bays requested that the SGA give the Homecoming committee $63,000 so that a top-name band could be contracted for the concert.
In other news, the SGA approved an act that will ask ETSU officials to simplify student e-mail addresses to reflect those of faculty and staff.
“I sat on the campus e-mail task force committee,” said Sen. Shearin, who authored and presented the legislation. “Student e-mail usage is really low, and instructors have a problem communicating with their students,” he said.
“There are 2,500 people on ETSU staff and 12,000 students, so it might be more problematic for students to use a similar naming system as staff,” said ETSU Director of Client Support Services Mark Bragg. “We’re open to changing it. We’ve even thought about letting students create their own user names, but in the real world, that causes another set of problems.”
Bragg encouraged students who had issues concerning ETSU computer systems to contact the Office of Information Technology Help Desk in the Culp Center at 3-4OIT (3-4648).
The SGA also passed another act to request that the Sherrod Library allow students to use their existing OIT lab print accounts on library printers, while keeping the current library printing system in place for community access.
“Right now, when you print in the library, you have to add money to your ID or by a card,” said Shearin, sponsor of the act.
“We just want to urge the library to allow students to use their OIT print account when they’re printing in the library,” he said.
Whether or not the library will accept this proposal is the library’s decision, said Bragg.
“The library’s mission is a little different than ours,” he said. “They chose not to be on our system because they wanted printing to be available to both students and people in the community who use the library for research.”
In other news, the SGA distributed over $24,000 in other 606 funding. Recipients included: Sigma Nu; Pi Kappa Alpha; Student Photography Association; Public City Management and the Association of Graduate Schools; Beta Alpha Psi; Christian Student Fellowship; and Panhellenic & Interfraternity Council.

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