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The Slate 4-25-23

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SGA in need of change, B1

Write the Ship/Reflector Launch, C1

Juried student art exhibit, D1

Softball celebrates seniors, E1

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Volume 66 No. 17

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

SGA passes budget despite extensive student concerns

Joel DeFilippo/The Slate

Skylar Walder speaks up at SGA’s public meeting last Thursday. Many other students also voiced their concerns with regard to the new budget.

Ian Thompson Staff Contributor

At its final public meeting of the academic year, the Shippensburg University Student Government Association (SGA) passed the 2023-2024 SUSSI budget and held the transition ceremony from the current SGA to next year’s slate of members. The meeting saw a larger turnout than any SGA meeting this year with around 60 students sitting and standing in the audience. The increased turnout can be ascribed to the meeting’s business — passing the SUSSI budget. Shippensburg University Student Services Inc. (SUSSI) is the organization tasked with distributing funds to student groups from the student activity fee. The SGA Budget and Finance Committee (B&F) reviews student group budget proposals and determines how to allo-

cate funds. The 2023-2024 budget includes sweeping cuts to many student groups, including a 34% cut to club sports, a 21% cut to student clubs and organizations, a 27% cut to performance arts and a 46% cut to student media. Many students representing organizations across these categories spoke during the open discussion to express their displeasure with the budget. Associate Editor of the Reflector Emily Dziennik spoke on the wide-reaching budget cuts. “This budget cut will only hurt SU,” Dziennik said. “Without the money to hold events that bring outside speakers to campus, the university is losing a valuable opportunity to receive outside attention.” Aiden Piper, the current president of SU Bands, noted the importance of performing arts groups on campus. “We are student ambassa-

dors for Shippensburg University, assisting in retention, enrollment and recruitment,” Piper said. “We are quite literally on a billboard on Interstate 81.” Piper continued, sharing how the budget cuts would affect those groups. “Each one of our ensembles gets to travel, gets to showcase Shippensburg University, and that’s what we’re here for,” Piper said. “That’s what we’re here to do for our campus. With these budget cuts, we are now determining that we cannot do some of those things.” Katie Bridges, the vice president of SU Bands, continued Piper’s remarks after he was cut off by a two-minute limit imposed on individual comments. “My purpose is to try to show you why we requested what we do and how that money is used,” Bridges said. “Not a single member of SGA or the Budget Committee has approached myself or any of my officers.”

Brigette Allen, the director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, commented on the claim that Panhellenic Council was denied a budget because it did not maintain its CampusGroups page. “Panhellenic Council has like, 12 executive members, and that’s who’s on there,” Allen said. “Did we need to have every single woman in the entire Panhellenic community represented on there?” SGA President Kennedy Holt responded to concerns during the open gallery. “Everyone was offered an opportunity to serve on the B&F Committee,” Holt said. “Not many of you took that opportunity.” “Obviously no one’s happy the budget’s getting cut, but this is the first time I’ve seen like half the faces in here,” B&F Committee member Justin Brajkovich added. VP Brea Neal responded to student’s concerns with an appeal to fundraise. “Every club in this room

has had some type of cut, and every club in this room is now going to be expected to put a little more in so that their club is ran successfully,” Neal said. Responding to concerns about student media being cut by over 46%, Neal commented, “SGA was also cut.” Katie Huston, the business manager for The Slate, recalled SGA’s issues with how the organization has portrayed SGA. “We can’t present you in any way, if we don’t have the budget to print,” Huston said. A member of the hockey team remarked, “A huge cut to the athletes is a huge cut to the entire school.” In response to concerns brought by other athletes, Neal said: “We don’t have money to give. We’re giving you money we don’t have. So it’s like, we’re doing what we can.” However, according to some, that is not the case. Read the full story at theslateonline.com.

Professor Sara Grove waves goodbye to Shippensburg University after 31 years

Connor Niszczak Asst. Copy Editor

Her office is cluttered with three decades’ worth of personal history. A shrine to Bon Jovi sits on top of a shelf, photos from her many travels fill the room and plaques from numerous awards collected over the years tie the room together. This is the academic home of SU’s Sara Grove. A professor of both political science and criminal justice, Grove is preparing to retire from Shippensburg University after a career that began in early 1992. “I have mixed emotions,” Grove said. “I’m thankful for everything I’ve been able to do since I’ve been at Shippensburg, and I’m going to be sad to miss many of my students and my colleagues in the political science department especially.” Before coming to SU, Grove taught at Frostburg State University in Maryland. Grove had met two SU political science faculty members at a conference, so when an adjunct position opened up in the spring semester of 1992, Grove applied, got the job and began as a full-time professor that fall. In her 30 years here, Grove has seen five university presidents, countless building renovations and even the birth of Big Red in 2006. However, Grove said, “It still feels like Ship.” “You can talk to people if they graduated in 1995, 2005 or 2015 — everyone has this attachment to here, and that’s really what makes it special and important,” Grove said. “Here, you can go across campus and know people no matter what your major or department is — and that’s good.” There were certainly challenges along the way, but Grove said almost all of hers have been issues with individual students or faculty rather than more widespread problems. When Covid hit, Grove was on sabbatical, but she opted to return to her classroom for the fall 2020 semester. Grove says the pandemic continues to affect students and amplified the divide between haves and have-nots. “It showed the divide between people who had resources and were able to manage and people who did not and had to wait for resources to find them,” Grove said. Grove is well-known for her dedicated teaching style and passion for both political science and criminal justice. One of the techniques she has used to stay engaged with her content

through the decades is to never teach a class the same way twice, which helped Grove adapt to virtual learning during the pandemic. “I try to keep things interesting because it is supposed to be relevant to your life, especially the gen eds,” Grove said. “One of the goals for me always with general education and the courses in political science is to get you to see how this connects to you and why this matters.” One of Grove’s favorite courses to teach has been World Politics, which has satiated her never-ending desire to travel and explore more of the world. In one iteration of the course several years ago, a student gave a presentation on Switzerland and Jungfraujoch, which is the highest observatory in Europe. Grove deliberately traveled to Jungfraujoch, often known as “the top of the world,” and captured “one of my most iconic pictures of my life” on the train ride there. At different points in her SU career, Grove has worn the hats of department chair for both criminal justice and political science. Grove said balancing those two duties taught her different disciplines view the world differently and that criminal justice has to be more rigid, especially courses centered on the law. Working in two departments has given Grove quite the roster of faculty friends, many of whom she chose not to mention so as to not leave anyone out. Grove told stories of beloved English professor Mary Stewart and shouted out political science colleagues Lonce Bailey, Niel Brasher and Alison Dagnes, who will replace Grove as department chair. “Dr. Sara Grove has been an essential leader of the political science department and of the broader Shippensburg University campus,” Dagnes said. “She has mentored faculty, staff and students alike and has devoted personal time and attention to all. When she retires, she will leave behind both a tremendous and incomparable legacy as well as shoes that are too big for anyone to fill. We will miss her powerfully.” After her final commencement on May 6, Grove will be moving to Pittsburgh to work on some “special projects” at the Duquesne School of Law. She didn’t rule out possibly teaching a class again but does not see that in her immediate future.

Grove also plans to keep running “as long as I don’t fall in any holes,” has season tickets to the Pittsburgh Pirates and looks forward to exploring the Carnegie libraries. Grove hopes her students and colleagues will remember her as someone who did her best to give students a better understanding of the world and was always willing to learn. “I hope that students have a better understanding of the things going on around them, whether it’s in the United States, in the world or in the law,” Grove said. “I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t figure out something that I want to look up.”

Photo courtesy of Sara Grove

SU Professor Sara Grove on a train to Jungfraujoch, a lookout in the Swiss Alps known as the “top of the world,” in the summer of 2019.


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