Written By: LaShawn Oglesby

Dining services and Homecoming were two of many topics discussed during the SGA meeting Tuesday night.

The SGA had several faculty guests who attended to become better acquainted with the SGA and discuss their plans for the semester. They encouraged SGA’s input and help for many projects and ideas. Senators and attendees were allowed to ask questions, comment and make suggestions regarding all things brought up throughout the meeting.

Along with dining and Homecoming, the meeting included safety awareness, the student handbook, senate applications, voting for judicial board, swearing in, SGA polo shirts and a recap of recent events (Bonfire Cookout and The Happening).

The marketing director of dining services, Allison Mitchell, and resident district manager, Pete Harkness, were in attendance to inform the SGA of their dining advisory meetings, which are held the first Thursday of each month, 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Harkness said that one or two SGA senators elected to be the committee representatives would help move things forward and bring SGA questions and concerns to the meetings.

Meal periods were also discussed, with a few senators voicing their concern about not being able to re-enter dining halls to eat.

“There was a few that ruined it for the many,” Harkness said. “There was a few people that were using their block plans or unlimited plan by swiping multiple times during a meal and bringing friends in when they weren’t allowed to bring friends in.”

In order to stop misuse of meal plans, dining services created meal blocks where students with meal plans can only swipe once during a meal period. Those with the unlimited meal plan must wait ten minutes before re-entering a dining hall after leaving.

According to Mitchell and Harkness, the meal block schedule can be found on the dining website.

Heather Proctor, VSU director of alumni relations, is overseeing Homecoming this semester. Homecoming will be held Oct. 20-25. Proctor revealed the homecoming logo, Ignite, and the theme, which is the 25th anniversary for the arts.

There will be many events, such as the T-shirt exchange, president cookout and pep rally, Wild Adventures night and Blazer Pride Day. She also announced that VSU will be having a homecoming king this year.

Thressea Boyd, VSU director of communications, was there to talk about a new safety awareness campaign. She wants the help of the SGA in its development.

Sam, a cartoon squirrel, is the mascot of safety awareness. Anyone can follow Sam on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (VState_Sam), though he is geared toward students.

Boyd discussed many ideas for Sam, including introducing a villain for Sam later down the road and how to inform students about VSU and safety via tweets from Sam’s Twitter account.

Promotional items such as cups, whistles and shirts were made available to all who attended the meeting.

SGA later announced the four candidates for the judicial board who were all voted in by the senators after they each introduced themselves and said why they were interested in being on the board. They were then sworn in after a unanimous vote.