The Student Association held their sixth weekly meeting of the semester Tuesday evening. The number of senators present was enough to make quorum.
One new student was sworn in as a senator and took the oath of office on the SA constitution. The minutes from last week were then approved, and the agenda for the meeting was approved as well.
There was one guest to the senate. Stephen Aschkenes, a representative of WTOP-10 TV, spoke to the senate, saying the campus television organization has $20 left in its account for office supplies. Aschkenes said the station goes through a lot of paper each week, and he is concerned about funding for paper for the remainder of the school year. He went on to say the organization has other accounts they could transfer funds to, but a lot of those funds will be used for the movies WTOP-10 puts on, salaries and CD, as well as broadcasting projects to be used later in the year. Aschkenes asked the SA senate for $250 to pay for office supplies for the remainder of the year. Sen. Jillian Kranz and a new senator volunteered to write up a bill for the proposal.
There was no public comment.
In executive reports, SA President Tucker Sholtes started out by thanking everyone who was involved in the events of last week’s Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit and “Tomorrow Show” campaign. Sholtes said he has returned to working on the massive spring concert that will occur on May 8, 2015, the same day as Bridge Street Run to serve as an alternative celebration for students to attend. Sholtes said the actual concert planning will be delayed for some time because a lot of major artists aren’t making their spring schedules just yet. In the meantime, Sholtes said he has been working on the other events that will transpire that day, such as the May Day events. Sholtes said he wanted to meet with individual members of SA and discuss the components of the concert and eventually hold a campus-wide meeting to help decide what kind of music to be looking for when choosing an artist. Sholtes added he wants to get committees formed regarding the event.
Sholtes discussed senators participating in the committee of intercollegiate athletes. He would like one male and one female to participate. He also offered senators involvement in the campus concept committee, which would give students a voice in determining which new buildings could be built on the Oswego State campus, as well as businesses that have applied to Oswego State as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Start-Up NY program.
Sholtes offered senator involvement in the student calendar committee, which is currently deciding the various events and important time-points happening in the 2018-2019 school year.
“If you’re part of this committee, you’ll be potentially determining when your commencement is or when the spring break for that year will be,” Sholtes said.
SA Vice President Neely Laufer then spoke to the senate regarding the senate’s special meetings happening once a month, the objection to bring lots of students to the meetings to express their concerns about the campus. Laufer said the first of these special meetings could potentially happen on either Nov. 4 or Nov. 11. A specific topic of student concern will also be determined by that time.
Director of Finance Elena Sanchez showed the senate formal documentation for approval of two campus organizations that did not get approved budgets last year. Both the organizations submitted budgets last year but were missed during the approval period and never brought to the senate floor. Sholtes and Sanchez took executive measures to approve the budgets due to their low requests. Sanchez said she has been looking through the records to make sure no other budgets were missed. So far, she has only seen these two.
Director of Public Affairs Renee Ricketts addressed the senate about a campaign against alcoholism and drug use on the Oswego State campus. SA will be tabling and providing give-aways next Monday through Friday. She handed out posters to be posted in residence halls to advertise the campaign.
In committee reports, Rules and Judiciary Committee Chair Jillian Kranz said the committee did not meet because they meet biweekly, and this was their off week. Finance Committee Chair Tyler Jodeit said the committee also did not meet last week. Student Involvement Committee Chair Shantol Williams said her committee did not either due to the events of the media summit.
Sen. Emily Nassir briefly discussed the “Miss a Meal” event taking place soon, as well as the proposal for a campus-wide Co-existence Day, which she said will take place during the spring semester because of the number of important events in the fall and to give more time for preparation.
In hall council reports, Sen. Jillian Kranz, resident of Funnelle Hall, said the residence hall is hosting a “Funnelleaween” event and the hall murder game. A senator from Johnson Hall said the building is proposing to have a print station and a video game community building exercise. A senator from Scales Hall also said its hall council is looking into a video game community builder. A senator from Hart Hall said the building is busy in its penny wars competition.
In senate research forum, Sen. Sarah Woods continued her discussion from last week regarding student safety on campus and will be meeting with various RAs and University Police to talk about the matter. Sholtes took the time to discuss his experience at the SUNY SA conference last weekend in Rochester. Sholtes said he was pleased to discover Oswego State is far ahead of other SUNY schools in the case of their legislation.
“They were talking about legislation for their own ‘It’s On Us’ campaign, which we have already talked about,” Sholtes said. “They discussed having local foods in their dining halls, which we’ve had since 2000.”
Sen. Nassir brought up the topic of student discounts at local businesses. She said she talked to one of her friends from another SUNY school, and they provide students with discount cards, listing all the businesses that have student discounts with purchases. Sholtes and Nassir might try to initiate a similar tool for Oswego State students.
There were no special orders, new legislation or senator issues.
The SA senate meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Lanigan 102. All meetings are open to the public.
