UWF's Student Government Association met Friday, Sept. 23 with representatives from 11 Florida state universities to discuss a wide range of issues such as Hurricane Katrina assistance, school updates and tuition plans.

The Florida Student Association consists of student body presidents and lobbyists from Florida public universities. The board sets a legislative agenda of what issues it will focus on for the annual meetings.

SGA officials held a town meeting, Sept. 15, prior to the FSA meeting to get student input about the issues at hand. SGA President Tim Roberts said the point of the town meeting was to educate students about the issues and allow them to express their concerns in an open forum.

"We did realize that students are primarily interested in immediate issues like parking and food service," Roberts said. For example, Roberts said some students and faculty think the pricing of cafeteria food is too expensive.

At the FSA board meeting, representatives of each school gave a report about what had been going on this semester at their universities.

All Florida universities have done something to aid Hurricane Katrina victims who have transferred from colleges that were destroyed in the storm.

A Florida International University official said the university provided free tuition for the first semester, and found jobs and apartments for married students.

Other schools waived out-of-state tuition for transferring Katrina victims, and Florida State University is allowing victims to defer tuition for one semester.

A top FSU student official briefed the assembly on the NCAA controversy declaring the university's sports mascot, the Seminoles, as "hostile and offensive" and requiring the university to drop the name.

After an appeal of the NCAA edict, FSU was not required to change its mascot, said Chris Schoonover, FSU student body president and chairman of FSA.

A student official from the University of Florida discussed a controversial cartoon printed in the Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper, which sparked outrage from some students.

The cartoon slammed rapper Kanye West for accusing President Bush of mistreating poor people in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. The cartoon showed West holding up a playing card that said "the race card" to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who in response said: "[N_ _ _ _ ] please!"

The president of the university called on the newspaper to apologize for using offensive language and some students rallied against the cartoon. UF Student Body President Joe Goldberg said student government officials retaliated against the student newspaper by pulling ads.

"There's a sense of journalistic responsibility," Goldberg said. "I think it was inappropriate what they did."

"And now they're writing cartoons about me," he said.

The Independent Alligator has refused to apologize and accused critics, including student government, of being hypocrites. The newspaper noted that the university has paid West and other rappers who routinely use the n-word in their songs to perform on campus.

The meeting also addressed pending proposals at state universities such as block tuition, which would require all students to pay a flat fee for tuition. Roberts explained that a person taking nine credit hours would be paying the same amount as a student taking 12 credit hours.

Roberts said that the reason for this bill would be to keep students from staying in school too long, using grants and state money.

"We as student government are against this bill because it's not really beneficial to students," Roberts said.

FSA Executive Director Mike Fischer said that FSA is also trying to defeat block tuition proposals.

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