SGA passes resolution to keep military students from losing financial aid

ETSU’s Student Government Association passed emergency legislation Tuesday to keep enrolled military personnel from losing financial aid.

The SGA senate approved this emergency resolution in a 24-0 vote with four abstentions.

This resolution recommended that ETSU President Brian Noland sign a memorandum required by the U.S. Department of Defense for military personnel to keep their federal financial aid.

The deadline for signing the memorandum is March 1, and according to the SGA resolution, if the memorandum was not signed, all military personnel currently receiving federal financial aid would lose their aid and would be required to transfer to another university that signed the memorandum.

Due to the memorandum’s impending deadline, the SGA senate decided to pass emergency legislation to allow this resolution to go to a vote on its first reading.  
“It had to be done in a certain time frame,” SGA President Iqra Ahmad said. “It was very important because students could lose their scholarships.”

Sens. Katherine Starrett, Zack Sholes and Lucas Hitechew sponsored this resolution.

“Each of these incredible men and women has served our country,” Hitechew said. “They deserve their financial aid just as any other student.”

Starrett hopes that upon seeing how many students this will affect, Noland will sign the memorandum, she said.

“This is a large portion of our student population that is often forgotten about, and with the very imminent loss of so much of their financial aid money, I felt it my obligation to do what I could for them,” Starrett said. “I hope this legislation will encourage Dr. Noland to sign the memorandum in an act of student protection.”

SGA meets at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays in the D.P. Culp University Center.