The Associated Student Government voted to recognize the Spanish Club as a Registered Student Organization with a vote of 18-0-0 during their meeting last Thursday.
“Our goal in the future is to proceed to help encourage people to study Spanish,” said Christian Smith, vice president of Spanish Club and sophomore marketing major. “To help them practice on learning Spanish in an environment where they can work with native speakers.”
The Spanish club hopes to volunteer at the local hospitals as translators, and also foster growth and development between English and Spanish speakers, according to Luis Sanchez, president of the Spanish Club, graduate student and Spanish major.
“We’re looking forward to make more connections with the community,” Sanchez said.
In other business, Diana Kuhlmann, associate vice president for finance and budget director for the university, spoke to ASG about the current state of the university’s budget, including imminent cuts.
“I’m pretty optimistic,” Kuhlmann said. “This isn’t the first time Emporia State has experienced budget cuts.”
Emporia State along with other Regent schools took a collective $30 million hit this summer, which for ESU meant a three percent cut, or $855,000, according to Kuhlmann.
“We have to make some pretty tough decisions,” Kuhlmann said.
The president and vice president of the university are meeting to discuss where future funds are going to come from to sustain ESU.
“They’ve developed some guiding philosophies,” Kuhlmann said. “One of them is that this doesn’t go on you guys’ (students’) backs. It can’t.”
ESU won the Can the Bods competition against Washburn, according to Cassandra Stair, ASG vice president and senior political science major.
Stair also said that the ASG resolution against guns on campus has been talked about in media outlets in Emporia, Topeka and Kansas City.
“We are all extremely excited that these conversations are sparking discussions both on our campus and around the state of Kansas,” Stair said.
Finally, a fund request for XENOS was passed unfavorably, as they already had allocation funds that they could use in order to attend a conference.
The next ASG meeting will be at 5:15 p.m. on Dec. 1 in the Senate Chambers of the Memorial Union.