SEMO Board of Governors meets to discuss future initiatives

The Board of Governors convened in Academic Hall on SEMO’s main campus on Oct. 4 to discuss several key topics, including the campus parking system, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, and future projects for the spring semester.

President Carlos Vargas opened the meeting with the President’s Report. Following this, junior special education major and Student Government Association (SGA) vice president Grant Breece raised concerns about ADA compliance and campus accessibility.

“I’m huge on ADA compliance. I know it's very hard with our campus to get a lot of ADA compliance, just because it's very hilly. I think that with some of our sidewalks that have a bit of a decline to it, it would be better to have some kind of railing,” Breece said.

Breece also addressed issues with parking congestion, particularly around class buildings Dempster and Scully.

“Another thing is the parking system. I think at Dempster, it’s the biggest cluster. I think that there needs to be some kind of system that could work a little bit better at Dempster, because I know that once it hits around 10 o’clock, people are starting to have to park in areas they are not assigned to,” Breece said.

SGA President Lydia Pobst then provided an update on current student government projects, including the replacement of parking meters on campus.

“One of the main things we have been working on is our parking meters and our parking systems right now. A lot of our parking meters are broken or unused, and honestly just don’t look very good, and a big focus of our campaign this year is campus beautification,” Pobst said.

Pobst also mentioned efforts to better utilize space the Center for Student Involvement provides.

Following Pobst, the board heard from 2024-2025 chair Jenny Cropp from the faculty senate. Cropp said that the Senate is currently working on a quality initiative for face-to-face classes.

“In the handbook, we have guidelines for online courses, and a system by which we check those online classes for quality, but we don’t have the same guidelines for face-to-face classes, so that’s one of the things that academic affairs is working on right now, adjusting those guidelines to cover both online and face-to-face courses,” Cropp said.

Cropp also discussed considering updating the handbook language on how departments run elections.

“We are going to attempt a constitutional amendment, and that hasn’t been done in a while, but it’s just an update on the constitution to reflect current practices for elections. So they’re going to revise the handbook language to reflect how we currently do it. We want to give that autonomy back to the departments while still making sure that elections are run fairly,” Cropp said.

The meeting concluded with suggestions aimed at strategic initiatives to enhance the student experience at SEMO. Moving forward, the board aims to support SEMO’s educational objectives and ensures its continued progress in higher education.