President Daniel S. Papp spoke with the student government this past Thursday, Nov. 15 to update the assembly on key developments around KSU.
KSU’s budget status has been steady since the last time Dr. Papp visited SGA, but he did highlight some important information. “There has been a 3 percent reduction in the state budget for Kennesaw State . . . fortunately we built this year’s budget with a roughly 2 percent reserve,” said Papp.
Delaying hiring individuals for open positions for 60 days is covering the rest of the reduction. “Those two things [the 2 percent reserve and hiring cutbacks] together have been sufficient to allow us to cover that 3 percent giveback, which was a little bit over 2 million dollars,” said Papp. “We’ve also been told to hold back another 2 percent just incase there is a requirement for another reduction . . . even with all that, we will not have to change the plan of operations for Kennesaw State this year at all with the exception of curtailing, a little bit, some of the new programs that we planned to start up this year.”
Dr. Papp also reported on the buildings planned for construction over the next few years. Along with the new student recreation center, phase 2 of the Art Museum and the expansion of the Education Building will begin next spring. Also, the proposal of a 200,000 sq. ft. classroom building will be discussed with the Board of Regents in the spring.
SGA President Rosalyn Hedgepeth presented a summary of events that happened at Student Advisory Council Conference for the University System of Georgia that took place Nov. 8-9 at Georgia College and State University.
“It’s [SAC] basically all the SGA presidents from the University System of Georgia . . . get together and will just talk about the concerns of the student that we see. Together we represent about 314,00 students,” said Hedgepeth.
The point of SAC is to improve the student government institutions at University System institutions by connecting and sharing information with the different schools.
President Hedgepeth discussed some the strategies that state run schools, like KSU, aim to take to the Board of Regents in the spring. The prevalent common factor in state schools is space utilization. “That’s something that was a big concern throughout all of the campuses . . . everybody’s trying to get more buildings,” said Hedgepeth. Kennesaw State’s new 5-day schedule was created in order to alleviate spacing issues. SGA has a new website still under construction at ksusga. com. The new site was made as a more comprehensive and accessible way to connect with students. The site, which will have a link on the KSU homepage, should be completed within the next few weeks.
