Meet Micaiah and Liz

Capitol every wednesday to directly discuss with state legislatures about the university and student needs. Krutsinger’s team is hoping to pass the $4 million state appropriations, the $4 million for educators for Iowa and the $1 million request for mental health resources in the legislature.

“I’ve already been having experience with the Board of Regents, with the state legislature, I currently have the contact information to a lot of individuals in these positions (of power)… So, if reelected, we are able to work off of our connections, and it’s not a reset from administration to administration,” Krutsinger said. “We are able to still make stronger relationships with our local governments. Instead of having to reset NISG and have new individuals be making new relationships.”

Another project that they are working on is the Counseling Compact, which is a compact between states for mental health resources. This project would make it easier for mental health professionals to travel state to state with multiple licenses.

“That’s something we want to focus on because that is bringing resources to UNI,” Krutsinger said. “We don’t know where the legislature is going to end up by the end of our term [in April].”

With the administration keeping the ABC’s the same they are looking to push the message to the community.

“So, we kept it the same as last year, because I want the student body to see that if they elect me that there are continuous (priorities and efforts) in student government, and we are willing to work on the same initiatives that we’ve been working on for the last year, but also adding a lot more to our own.” Krutsinger said.

Get to know your ABC’s, then come along support their priorities

Academics

Kicking it off with “A” their platform is looking to publicly be in favor of the UNI and Iowa Community College Partnership, also known as UNI@IACC, tuition differentiation, “Our Tomorrow Campaign” and the development of the nursing program that will be launching its first cohort in 2024. Their platform is taking action by talking with members of the Board of Regents and state legislators to receive the necessary funding and approval of these future initiatives.

“Without academics we wouldn’t be here at UNI, we wouldn’t be working towards a degree.” Krutsinger said.

In the September meeting of the Board of Regents, President Mark Nook requested $2 million for funding to double the community colleges involved and push student support specialists on the community college campus. This agenda item has already been presented to the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee by Nook, and the next step will be voting on the request; a timeline is not yet determined on voting.

They are also looking to incentivize educators to enter the education field by having student teaching be paid. Right now, education majors do not get their student teaching paid.

This administration is also looking forward to working alongside the office of the President to advocate for the necessary funding from the state to keep the university tuition from rising. In the Board of Regents Nook requested a total of $4 million dollars to maintain the university’s tuition from rising. This agenda item has already been presented to the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee by Nook and the next step will be voting on the request; a timeline is not yet determined on voting.

They are also wanting faculty to add a trigger warning in the syllabus of content that may have domestic violence, hate crimes, sexual assault and more etc.

The administration wants to also help bring awareness of Rod Library’s textbook equity initiative to offer free textbooks to students by sharing it on their social media.

Balance

Krutsinger and Montalvo are seeking to advocate for Mental Health, Campus Safety and STD testing.

With the $1 million request for mental health approved by the Board of Regents the two are looking to continue the advocacy in passing the request in the state legislature. This also includes the awareness of telehealth opportunities. The administration is also wanting to continue the partnership with the Student Health Center and looking to fund for more graduate assistant positions.

Montalvo has been working closely with the student health center leadership team as the director of mental health.