St. Thomas Director of Community Relations Jerome Benner and Director of Retention and Student Success Tonia Jones Peterson spoke at the Undergraduate Student Government meeting on Thursday, Feb. 13.
Part of Benner’s job is to handle relations with the university in the government, which he said gives him insight into State Grant Program updates.
Benner said that the State Grant Program is expected to have a large shortfall, which will affect students nationwide, including Tommies.
“For a bit of context, the State Grant Award, the governor signed the bill to say that for last year $14 million was allocated to 68,000 undergraduate students in the fiscal year 2023, but now state officials are projecting a $211 million, so if we do the math, we are looking at $3 million for that amount of students, which is crazy, right?” Benner said.
The silver lining is that there is bipartisan support to fix the State Grant Program, Benner said.
“The expected budget forecast would be in March and could offer a clear on what the real vision is for the final dollar amount that legislators will work with to make sure to get the budget right,” Benner said.
Benner also introduced an event set for March 11 called “Day at the Capitol,” which allows students to have their voices heard by legislators.
“Support is support, and we want to make sure we have a good showing,” Benner said. “I think it’s just a great way to support your fellow Tommies.”
Jones Peterson also attended the meeting to discuss the Handraise Initiative— a system where students can virtually “raise their hand” to receive help in a variety of ways.
“Our goal is to positively impact the student experience, and for us, that means the outcome of that is going to lead to improved retention rates,” Jones Peterson said.
The initiative was formed when many students recorded that they needed direction on where to ask questions in a “Tommie check-in survey,” which Jones Peterson monitors.
“Other schools use this, but we’re gonna home-grow it,” Jones Peterson said.
Spring Elections
This spring, four USG positions are open. Intent to run packets are due on Feb. 17.
Schoolwide voting begins at 8 a.m. on Feb. 25 and ends at 8 p.m. on Feb. 26. New members will be sworn in on Feb. 27 at the Undergraduate Student Government meeting.
The open positions on the general council are:
- Second-year engagement senator
- Junior policy senator
- Greater Minnesota senator
- Underclassman residential senator
Cecilia Wallace can be reached at wall1238@stthomas.edu.
