Western’s Student Government Association wants to help students who lease in Bowling Green, and they’re seeking the city commission’s approval. ?

SGA President Kevin Smiley asked senators to look at a resolution for fair housing standards in Bowling Green at SGA’s Feb. 22 meeting.

The resolution supports the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which is designed to protect both tenants and landlords in lease agreements.?

Smiley said he hopes city commissioners and Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker will approve the bill.?

“Bowling Green has a special relationship with Western, and since other cities in the state have adopted the URLTA bill and shown its effectiveness, we feel this would be a great opportunity for them to show students that special relationship by approving the bill,” Smiley said.?

URLTA was a popular topic of discussion during the 2008 city elections, but Commissioner Bruce Wilkerson said it was never seriously considered or voted on because of its lack of room for negotiations.

The city would have to adopt every aspect of the act as a contract and wouldn’t be able to amend it.

Wilkerson said the act doesn’t allow landlords and tenants to discuss how they want to deal with problems. Instead, it tells them how they have to deal with each other.

He said that adoption of the act by other cities doesn’t necessarily mean URLTA would work for Bowling Green.

“I would have to be convinced that the good is so important that it outweighs the bad,” he said.

Smiley said he hopes a fresh look will make a difference. ? “It’s really a city issue, but we’re hoping to give it a new perspective,” he said. “This is an issue because students don’t always know what kind of leases they’re getting into.”

Smiley agreed that there were concerns with the language of the bill but says that the changes that would be made are “just common sense laws,” such as putting agreements between landlords and tenants in writing.

Walker said she supports the bill and called it “critically important” that both tenants and landlords receive fair and equal treatment.?

“It’s easy to get hung up on parts of it because the act requires that it be passed as a whole and not in part,” Walker said. “I think a concerted effort by citizens to push for fair treatment is what it will take (to pass the bill), and I feel URLTA accomplishes that.”?

Smiley said SGA will discuss URLTA further at today’s meeting.

At tonight’s Student Government Association meeting:

• President Kevin Smiley reminded senators about the Rally for Higher Education in Frankfort on Feb. 23. Buses leave at 9 a.m.

• Smiley asked senators to look at a resolution for fair housing standards in Bowling Green. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is designed to protect tenants from unfair landlords and to create fairer lease agreements. Smiley said this is a resolution he wants to encourage the city commission to adopt.

• Administrative Vice President Justin Thurman created pie charts for the senate, Organizational Aid and SGA budgets, which he said can be found on the SGA Web site. At the beginning of the meeting, the SGA had spent 59 percent of their total budget.

• Cromwell junior Emily Woosley was approved as student affairs committee chair.

• Brandon Logan, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, was approved as academic affairs committee chair. Smiley said Logan is the longest serving senator in the current senate.

• Lexington sophomore Daniel Shaw was approved as parliamentarian. Shaw said the first thing he will do is distribute copies of Robert’s Rules to senators. He said Robert’s Rules are guidelines for running meetings.

• Bowling Green senior Skylar Baker-Jordan spoke to the senate about domestic partner benefits. Baker-Jordan, former executive vice president, asked senators to sign a petition that will soon be circulating which gives Western’s employees domestic partner benefits. Smiley encouraged senators to think about what Baker-Jordan said saying, “I think this is an issue SGA should be involved with.”

• The SGA passed a bill giving $500 to transport Big Red to the National Cheerleaders Association College Nationals event in Daytona Beach, Fla. The bill said Big Red is one of ten mascot finalists in the mascot championship.

• The SGA passed a bill to fund the 2010 Western baseball game against the University of Kentucky. Members approved $3,500 to sponsor the game on April 20, which will be at Bowling Green Ballpark. Woosley, the bill’s author, said the last time Western played UK the stadium was sold out. She expects a similar crowd for the 2010 game.

• The SGA passed a bill that gave $1,300 to the Miss Black Western Pageant. Lexington sophomore Vashae Swope, the 2009 winner of Miss Black Western, said the pageant helps students and the community, as community service is a requirement for the winner. During her reign, Swope started a mentoring service for high school students. Swope said the pageant is open for all minority women. According to the bill, the winner will receive a book scholarship for two semesters and the first runner up will also receive a $200 book scholarship.

• The SGA passed a bill giving $1,250 from the scholarship fund to assist students participating in student research.

• The SGA passed a bill giving $3,600 from the scholarship fund to assist students participating in study abroad programs.

• The SGA passed a bill giving $5,005 from the organizational aid fund to 11 student organizations, including the Association for Computing Machinery, the women’s Rugby Club and the Knights Chess Club.

• The SGA passed a second bill giving $1,000 from the organizational aid fund to Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society and Up Til Dawn.

At tonight’s Student Government Association meeting:

• President Kevin Smiley reminded senators that the Rally for Higher Education, which was canceled last week, has been rescheduled for Feb. 23. Smiley encouraged senators and students to attend, saying, “The state is really starting to stall coming up with solutions for budget cuts.” Transportation will be provided for the event. Buses will leave at 9 a.m. and return around 6 p.m.

• Executive Vice President Kendrick Bryan announced that Overtime Sports Bar & Grill now accepts Big Red dollars.

• Wade Pierce, speaker of the Senate, said that next week’s meeting will be on Monday, Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. because of Tuesday’s rally.

• Oxford, Miss. junior William Currie Martin was approved as the director of Academic and Student Affairs.

• A bill was passed giving $600 to the Honors Club. Club members will use it to host a city-wide scavenger hunt to raise funds for their formal.

• Senator Austin Wingate, a sophomore from Fort Knox, said at the end of the meeting he thinks a lot of Western students view the SGA as an organization that does nothing, and others don’t know what the organization is. He encouraged senators to spread the word of what the SGA does among other students.

Winter weather stopped students from rallying for higher education for the second year in a row, but some Western students still managed to connect with legislators.

The Rally for Higher Education was supposed to take place on Tuesday afternoon in Frankfort but was canceled because of inclement weather.

It has been rescheduled for Feb. 23 at 2:30 Eastern Time, said Kevin Smiley, president of the Student Government Association.

SGA will provide free transportation for any students who want to attend, he said.

Smiley said he was able to meet with nine legislators on Tuesday, including Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, and Sen. Mike Reynolds, D-Bowling Green.

“We were able to communicate the message to people,” Smiley said. “And hopefully we’ll continue the lobbying process in any way we can.”

Smiley said previously that “protecting the academic environment and keeping services going” were top priorities for this year’s rally.

Western officials have said their biggest goal for the legislative session is replacing the federal stimulus money that is filling a hole in the state’s budget.

The $70 million Kentucky is receiving for higher education will run out by June 30, 2011.

Western’s share of the stimulus money is $5.4 million, and the university will face a reduction of that much if the money isn’t replaced.

Bowling Green junior Colton Jessie, who was supposed to be a keynote speaker at the rally, said he’s disappointed it was canceled.

“You really can’t plan for weather,” Jessie said.

Jessie had planned to speak about his own experience with higher education funding.

He said a scholarship from the state is helping him pursue his education at Western, and he hoped to discourage legislators from making further cuts to funding for Kentucky’s colleges.

Jessie said that he and five other Western students, including Smiley, went to Frankfort, despite the cancellation.

Memphis, Tenn., senior Meredith Wadlington was one of those students.

Wadlington said she thinks students sometimes don’t realize that what goes on in Frankfort affects them.

“I’m not originally from Kentucky,” Wadlington said. “But I’m registered to vote in Bowling Green because that is where (legislative) decisions affect me.”