Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
- South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Students' Association
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The Students’ Association has existed on campus since the early 1900s. The governing board of the Students’ Association was the Board of Control. The board was elected by the student body each spring and consisted of students from each division of the university with the Dean of Men and the Dean of Women as advisers. The president and vice president of the student’s association presided over the board with the president acting as chairman.
The Board of Control spent their time solving campus problems, sponsoring free movies, planning all-campus concerts, sponsoring the beauty pageant, Women’s Day and Leadership Camp, and filibustering about the Publication Council’s reserve fund. Members allocated funds from student fees to individual student enterprises; voted on student activities; and controlled the Students’ Association-owned bookstore. Their vote was the final decision on major student positions. The board also regulated the actions of the various special councils. Nomination of candidates for student president and vice-president formed one of the most important duties of the Board of Control.
The purpose of the organization was to promote and regulate student affairs in the best interests of the college, and to form a connecting link between the student body and the faculty.
The Students’ Association is the primary organization representing the interests, needs and concerns of students on campus. The Students’ Association includes every registered student at SDSU but the work of the Association functions through an elected Student Senate, which is responsible for three major program areas. First, the Senate provides input to the administration, Academic Senate, a wide variety of committees, the South Dakota Board of Regents and the South Dakota Legislature regarding student concerns. Students are represented on virtually every committee on campus, including the Academic Affairs Committee, and have an opportunity to influence policies and procedures during development and implementation. Second, SA provides support services and programs to assist students. Those services run the gamut from providing funding for the SA lawyer who offers legal advice to students to sponsorship of campus-wide educational programs. Finally, SA has the budgetary responsibility for allocation and supervision of funds provided by student activity fees each year.