The Student Entertainment Board (SEB) announced their formal separation from ASWSU during the senate meeting Wednesday.
“The (separation) will take full effect starting next fall semester,” said SEB Director Brian Logan.
The SEB will look exactly the same, he said. It will continue to be student-run, have the same committee structure and the same advisor structure.
One of the reasons for the change is that it will offer clarity due to the size of the SEB budget, he said. It would make more sense to go directly to the Student Activities Fees Committee (S&A) since they are the ones actually granting the funds, he said. This will give SEB more time to answer questions from S&A to ensure that the money granted will be used as the committee intended.
“The only changes that will really be made is SEB will present directly to S&A for our budget hearing,” Logan said.
Another change that will occur is during the hiring process for new programmers, directors and associate directors the applicants hired will not have to go through senate confirmation, Logan said.
“The Student Entertainment Board was originally created by ASWSU with the intention that we would support it and help its growth,” Senate Pro-Tempore Derrick Skaug said. “It appears that this really is the time for the (SEB) to be it’s own entity.”
When SEB does separate the senate will be able to focus more on other committees and organizations instead of being distracted by the large SEB budget, he said.
“We’re really just doing it because we think it will better benefit the students to have the direct representation to the S&A Committee,” Logan said. “It eases the workload on ASWSU so they can be more efficient in what they do.”
Mayor Verner 
Former Mayor of Spokane Mary Verner advised about finding a passion to change public policy at the meeting.
“Find that issue that you’re passionate about, where that issue interfaces with public policy and where there might be an opportunity for you to get inside government,” she said.
Verner said in her experience, to engage the public in government she had to go where they were. She would either be invited or invite herself to neighborhood council meetings, church meetings, clubs and other organizations, she said.
“Then I’d listen to what they were really passionate and interested in and try to help them make that connection between government and what they were interested in,” she said.
Verner said that local government is the closest equivalent to what ASWSU is doing on campus.
“The mayor provided a lot of good insight into public service,” Skaug said. “Her perspective on … local government and how we get people involved was really great to hear.”
ASUI
The Associated Students of the University of Idaho (ASUI) President Samantha Perez also attended the meeting. She briefed the senate on the structure of the ASUI government and entertainment collaboration ideas.
“I think doing combined entertainment events is always a really great idea,” Perez said.
Perez presented an idea for a WSU and UI joint canned food drive effort to raise food for the Palouse area. Other ideas presented included a marathon between WSU and UI and a service project for the community.
“(The) ASUI (president) was wonderful,” Skaug said. “She gave us a very interesting and thorough presentation.”
Skaug said he was pleased with how the meeting went. He was glad they were able to have the guest speakers even with the extreme weather conditions, he said.
“I just cannot thank both Mayor Verner and President Perez for braving the snow and coming out,” Skaug said.
ASWSU Involvement and Accessibility Act Update
The bill, which states that ASWSU positions will have an open and publicized application process for all students, passed unanimously during the meeting.
The bill will be submitted to President Riley Myklebust for his signature or veto, Skaug said. If the president does neither then the bill will become a law. Myklebust has until the next senate meeting to make the senate aware of any possible veto, he said.
