Student Government Association passes Financial Awareness Fair

NORMAL, Ill. – The Student Government Association (SGA) at Illinois State University has passed a bill to create a Student Resource Awareness Fair that will host different organizations on campus to promote better campus lifestyles. 

The Student Resource Awareness Fair will take place on March 22 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Bone Student Center. Organizations that will be in attendance include Career Services, Recreation and Wellbeing, the Dean of Students Office and more. 

The SGA Secretary of College Affordability, Kerem Tasdan, was one of the minds behind the fair’s creation. He says that the key purpose of the fair is to highlight the different resources and services that are available to ISU students. 

“It’s really all about promoting what resources, initiatives, offices and services are out there for us as students to utilize, most of which we pay into,” said Tasdan. “Whether that’s a variety of services that are at free or discounted prices for us as students or free clubs and RSO’s that have certain benefits to be able to join. 

Tasdan and SGA worked hard on planning and approving the Student Resource Awareness Fair. The most important part of the fair was getting different organizations on campus to attend the event and promote their craft. 

“A collaborative program, or a fair specifically like this, requires a lot of collaboration and tabling, the presence of these other offices who promote these services,” said Tasdan. “We could do our best to promote them on our own, but we couldn’t do it best ourselves, because there’s people whose specific jobs on campus are to help provide these services to us as students.”

Each organization that is attending the event will bring information regarding services and resources that are available to students. The goal is to show students things they have may have missed out on and can utilize in their academic and personal lives.

“There is a variety of not just services and resources but specific opportunities to get involved and to develop ourselves as students,” said Tasdan. “We have Milner Library there specifically promoting textbook affordability… The Financial Aid office provides a variety of scholarships. FAFSA workshops to help one on one with filling out our FAFSA as students that we have to redo each year… the Visor Center… the Student Health Center… the Campus Rec Center… Really what students can walk away with is a better knowledge of what is free or what we pay into through our fees and what not here on campus.”