By Jabari Montsho

I’ve been to a couple of school events at the SPC Gibbs campus. Some of them have been fun to attend while others provided me with valuable information.  Yet one would wonder about how events are planed and funded by the school. These led me to the office of Davie Gill.

Miss Laura, a woman who’s in charge of his schedule and helps plan the student leadership events that goes on at the school.

Miss Laura explained, “The first thing I do is look at our calendar, sit down and look at when school starts. The first week we do a welcome back so we plan that. And then we also have a night event so that we have something for the night students too.” The back to school events held for the students coming back and those who are new to the school. This is to be considered a fast and easy process because they can use the same vendors they have used in the past. As well as some of the same people promoting their clubs and activities so students can get involved with the school and enjoy their experience.

The budget comes from the student activities fees, which is paid with their tuition fee. A small part of the tuition is taken out for this and depending on if the student is going for an associates degree or a bachelor’s degree per credit hour, according to Student Government (SGA) President Charleston Fritts. And all the money that was for that would be divided to the Student Government groups for each campus.

The SGA helps regulate the various club event request and help in the approval process of the request forms, which are done online or through an email. Like a democracy, they vote with senators to see which events will be held and how much money will be given to support the event.

The venders that come to the events must be approved by the risk manager who tells Ms. Laura what venders she can have at the event and ones she can’t. Once she has that she can schedule the activities accordingly. And not all events will have a vendor.  On Feb. 18^th, 2016 at 6 o’clock pm there was an open mic going on. The Bitter Sweet Poetry Club, who had their event in the lobby one of the buildings in the SPC Gibbs campus, hosted the open mic event with a cart of sweets, tables of various drinks and another table for painting for kids that were brought along to the event.

According to the president of the Bitter Sweet Poetry Club she had to submit a couple of forms to the SG in order to get their request approved. With theses forms they must also write an essay on why their event should take place and how beneficial it will be for the students. On average the request will take up to two weeks before they get their response.  They were approved and given approximately $200 to use for this event.

Other events such as Lunch with the Provost will of course require more money than the previous event due to the fact that they expect some 800 people to attend the event. The voters and senators that attend the SGA meetings decide the budget. The results of the votes are counted tells if the event should get approved or not. There must also be a budget plan that governs how much money will be set-aside for some of the events. This meant that the clubs must write out a proposal in order to get the amount they require to fulfill the request of the students, clubs and activities at their respective campus.

Other events might require a lot of time to prepare vendors and the main attraction. The main attraction can be a guest speaker such as U.S. President, Barack Obama, who made an appearance at the Seminole branch of SPC. This would require a lot more time to plan out due to the person coming. Not all of the guests speakers are from out of town, some guest are local and are encouraged by the school participate.

SPC tries to make sure that its’ students have the best experience and opportunities they have to offer. These opportunities give students a process and order to follow, similar to how it works with outside organizations and government. The events are used as a means to connect students with each other and with the school. Which help make the students feel like a community rather than another head in book school.

Header photo from Gibbs campus SGA Facebook page.