A call for student support for college funding at the higher education rally in Montgomery went out Monday, Feb. 17, at the Student Government Senate Council meeting.
The rally, which will take place in front of the Alabama state capitol on Thursday, Feb. 27, is a public demonstration to show state legislature the importance of returning one-third of the state's education budget to institutions of higher learning.
"K-12 usually gets about two-thirds of the funding but I think right now they get about 83 percent," said Abby Lemons, senator, College of Business. "We would like to push it back to the actual two-thirds split [because] at the end of the day, if we want the state of Alabama to be better, then we need better colleges and more funding."
Jackson Pruitt, a senator from the College of Business, called the rally a demonstration of what equal funding should look like in Alabama.
"One dollar that the state invests in Auburn, Auburn returns $7 back to the economy," Pruitt said. "The big point of it all is were trying to return a better investment in education funding and that benefits Auburn students because it keeps tuition rates from going up."
In addition to the call to arms for fiscally-minded students, there were several requests made to access funds from the SGA reserve bank.
The College of Business Student Council was granted $5,750 from reserve fund to
host a speaking engagement featuring Steve Forbes, former editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, on March 21, 2014.
"It's a small amount for a high-quality event" said Richmond Gunter, senator, College of Business.
A request by the graduate college for $4,600 to be used for digital timers for research competitions like Three Minute Thesis, Graduate Research Symposium and Research Week is up for approval next week.
A request for the $16,403.15 to be added the graduate assistant salary for the Center for Leadership and Ethics in the 2014-2015 academic year will also be up for approval next week.\0x200B
The Raymond J. Harbert College of Business will be assembling a syllabus bank accessible to all students in time for the fall semester of 2014.
Next Monday, Feb. 24, is the last SGA senate meeting of the year. Graduating seniors are invited to come share their experiences as well.
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