Grand Rapids Community College Student Government held their monthly town hall meeting on Thursday March 19, where two allocation requests were heard and voted on by student leaders.
President Kathryn Rogalski attended her first town hall meeting and it gave student leaders the opportunity to hear from and ask questions to the new GRCC president. Rogalski shared her excitement amongst the student leaders.
“I’m especially happy to be with you all, one of my priorities as the new president is to hear from students, and to understand what you need to be successful, and how I can support that,” Rogalski said.
Rogalski continued on sharing her personal experiences as a college student. “When I was a student, I was a young mother and as a student I appreciated all the support that I got from my college,” Rogalski said. “So I want to make sure that as president that I’m listening and learning from our students, because your lives are busy, and you all have a lot of different things going on, but education, I know from my own experience can change lives. I love this college, this is my third week at GRCC and I think it’s an amazing place because of you, the students.”
To continue the proceedings, Treasurer of Student Government Itai Aharon, disclosed since the last town hall the current student leaders budget stood at $17,705.98. Not many allocation requests had come between the last meeting and now besides one request from the Muslim Student Association of $500 for a campus event they’ll be hosting on April 6th.
The amount was approved and that brought the budget down to $17,205.98. The first allocation request that was presented at the meeting was from the Black Africana Student Union. Next month on April 10, BASU will be hosting a modeling/fashion show event on campus.
The group requested an amount of $1,154.00 that would be divided between paying models, a DJ, backstage and crew support, a photographer, and for operations and event set up. The allocation request from BASU was approved. The event will be held at the Applied Technology Center Auditorium room 168.
The next allocation request came from the Geography Geographical Honor Society, where student Margaret Brady and her adviser would attend the 2026 California Geographical Society Annual Conference in Huntington Beach, California. Brady requested an amount of $4,378.66 that would cover the costs of airfare, ground transportation, food, conference registration, and lodging. The food expense was omitted from the request since the funds cannot be used for food at an out-of-state trip.
In the video request she submitted, Brady highlighted that the student organization has given presentations at 25 conferences over the past 16 years and at the time of the video she was currently in Cincinnati, Ohio after taking first place in the undergraduate paper presentation competition at the Regional Geography Conference, which was all paid out of her own pocket.
Brady went on to say that in the past 16 years GRCC students have participated in this conference 11 times. Being responsible for all costs to attend other conferences, Brady felt it was necessary to request funds from Student Government for this next big conference.
After the video, a lot of questions were raised about whether it was appropriate to use funds that GRCC students contribute to, to send one student and her adviser to California. Student Government’s budget comes from the activities fees that every GRCC student, whether in-person, online, M-TEC, or Lakeshore, all pay in order for these funds to be used for student events, initiatives, or needs.
After intense deliberation and deduction of cost, the new total that was voted on was $3,534.00. The new allocation amount was approved bringing the current budget to now $12,517.98.
Continuing on, Vice President of Student Government Amelia Haywood announced that the GRCC Center for Counseling and Well-Being is doing a healthy minds survey which is a confidential survey on mental health. Students that fill out the survey will be entered into a raffle to win AirPods, also will have a chance to receive parking passes and Raider bucks. The survey will be available from March 23 – April 15, the link will be sent to your student email.
Also, Campus Activities Board will be hosting a “Stuff-a-Plush” event on Monday March 23 on the second floor of the Student Center outside of the Raider Grill where students can come make their own stuffed River Raider Otters. There will also be t-shirts available that students can put onto their stuffed otters. Followed by a “Therapy Dogs” event on April 20 from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. in room 234 of the Student Center.
Student Government will also be hosting its “Winter Dance” event on Friday, March 27 from 7 – 10 p.m. at the Secchia Piazza in the ATC building. This event is free to attend and GRCC students can bring one non-GRCC guest, there will be free food as well. Subsequently, Student Government will host another “Bingo Night” on April 1, from 5 – 8 p.m. in room 234 of the Student Center. There will also be a “Bath Bomb Making” event on the Lakeshore campus on April 21 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the Lakeshore Campus Atrium.
Additionally, Student Government and CAB have open positions available for students to apply. CAB is hiring a new president, and vice president, while the student government is hiring a new president, vice president, treasurer, and communications director. Applications for positions can be found on RaiderConnect.
The last student town hall of the semester will be on April 16 from 4 – 5:30 p.m. at room 108 in the Raleigh J. Finkelstein building.
