Student Association Senate reconvened this week for its first official senate meeting of the spring semester. The meeting was held in room 205 of the Campus Center this week but will return to Lanigan next week.
Six new senators were sworn in, leaving the senate with a total of 19 senators to kick off the semester. The new senators were sworn in and were immediately available to the senate.
No minutes were available for approval and will be handled at the next meeting. The agenda was amended to add a bill for the Oswego State Ice Effects synchronized ice skating team to request money to make a trip to national competition.
President Anthony Smith thanked the senators who came to his emergency senate meeting on Jan. 30. The meeting was called to establish someone in the position of vice president. Francisco Perez takes over these duties.
Smith also explained how a phone application is in the works, through Oswego State’s computer department, that will combine DegreeWorks, MyOswego and Starfish (an extension of ANGEL) all into one program for students to easily access on their mobile phones. He also explained that bids went out for a campus safety application, but no contract has been established yet.
Vice President Perez said he was going to work on getting the Miss-a-Meal program set up and that he was still working on getting senate dinners started. He also wanted to establish a form of communication with all of the senators and asked them to write down their phone numbers and to make sure they keep him informed to keep senate organized.
Director of Finance Hassan Al-Shareffi told the senators he plans on having the budgeting module on LakerLife up and running by the end of next week. He also plans on meeting with treasurers and other members of organizations to show them how the system will work.
The senate promotions account still has $1,000 to be spent. The SA contingency fund has $2,000 in it and SA is in the process of ordering T-shirts to make themselves more recognizable to the student body. The organization contingency account has $5,605 in it, while the joint organization account has $2,500 still in it.
Al-Shareffi told the senators that while money is great, their main purpose is to facilitate student needs, and he really pushed for them to try and solve problems for their constituency. He also told the senate the budgeting process will begin within the next two weeks and to take it very seriously as they are tasked with dispersing $1.4 million.
The director is also working on forming a committee to find a replacement for his position as he will not be returning for the next session of SA. He wants to make sure the position is properly fulfilled and plans on training his replacement well before the end of the semester.
Perez reorganized the committees of senate. A new chair to the rules and judiciary committee was named as Neely Laufer resigned as attorney general to take the position. She will also take the responsibility of Senate Pro Tempore. Jordan Dedrick was named as the chair for the involvement committee. The finance committee is already chaired by Tyler Jodeit.
The legislation brought to the senate is a bill to help fund the Oswego State Ice Effects as they head to nationals in Colorado. They are asking the senate for $7,000. The bill was referred to the finance committee.
SA senate meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Lanigan 102. The meeting is open to the public.
