The Oswegonian

The Independent Student Newspaper of Oswego State

DATE

Dec. 23, 2024

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This Week in SA

The Student Association held its 16th meeting of the academic year Tuesday evening. The number of the senators needed to make quorum was satisfied.

The minutes from last meeting and the agenda for the current meeting were approved.

There was one guest to the senate. One of SA’s newest clubs, Clay Bodies, requested funding for a trip to attend the National Council for Education in Ceramic Arts, a conference in Providence, R.I. at the end of this month. They want to attend this conference along with five of their members in order to compete in a competition and have their work judged from professionals in the field as well as meeting other people in their field. They hope to take the knowledge they would gain from this conference, bring it into their club and share it with other students interested in ceramics. Being that they are a new club, they plan to host future events and meetings to teach other students who are interested in ceramics.  A senator volunteered to write the bill for proposal.

There were several presentations made to the senate about the different student fees included in tuition. Liz Burns, the director of Health Services at Mary Walker Health Center, along with Shelly Sloan, promotional health coordinator from the Lifestyles Center, and Marie Grimshaw-Clark, the director of the counseling services center talked about the student health fee and the services that fee provides at the Mary Walker Health Center.

Nicholas Lyons, the vice president for administration and finance informed the Senate about what the fees are and reminding the Senate that the health, technology and athletic fee is all subsidized by the college. According to Lyons, SUNY-wide they allowed the administration to increase student fees 1.19 percent, which is a $27 fee for students that will be distributed into the health, athletic and technology services. He said the administration is still unsure about how they will divide that fee among these three services but technology and athletics will profit from the bulk of the share, leaving health services with the rest.

Nicole Decker, the associate director of client support and communication in campus technology services presented the services CTS is working on to improve for the future. They are looking to expand their wireless connection, focusing on the academic buildings and installing the most updated versions of Adobe Creative Cloud Software and Lynda.com for students to use campus-wide.

Susan Viscomi, the director of athletics, presented the athletic fee to the senate and informed them that Oswego State is in line with other SUNY schools’ $10 athletic fee. Oswego State sponsors the second highest amount of sport teams right below SUNY Cortland. Viscomi also gave some highlights of some of the major sporting events this past year. Part of the athletic fee goes into funding for Campus Recreation events.

There was one public comment. Marlon Calliste, sophomore and an English and public justice major, announced his intentions on running for SA vice president for next year. He is currently the vice president of the Black Student Union. He emphasized his desire to connect more senators with student organizations. The senate continued to question Calliste on his ideas and his qualifications for an SA vice president candidate.

In executive reports, Tucker Sholtes, SA president, updated the Senate about the spring concert. He told the senators that everyone involved in SA will receive a free ticket. He announced that ticket sales begin Sunday at noon, with tickets starting at $45 and going up to $60 for students after spring break. The senators posed questions pertaining to some of the logistics and concerns about the events going on that day.

Jillian Kranz, SA vice president, announced that she will return next year as a senator. She had a full list of speakers to bring into the Senate. This list includes Lisa Evaneski, associate dean of students, Michael Flaherty, director of auxiliary services and John Rossi, chief of University Police.

She strongly encouraged the senators to attend the conversation with Oswego State President Deborah Stanley on March 9 at 7 p.m. and not only to ask question, but to also listen to what other students have to say.

Christopher Collins-McNeil, the SA director of civic engagement, addressed the senate on his intentions to run for the next president of SA. The senators asked questions regarding his plans and ideas for next year, including to change the way SA is run and the structure of it.

Sholtes handed out the order forms for the SA apparel. It was determined that the polo T-shirts would be free and the rest of the apparel including a half-zip jacket, a sweatshirt and a T-shirt will cost the senators half price. This totaled will be about $23 for all of the SA apparel.

The petitions were approved by the rules and judiciary committee for the elections. Collins-McNeil is the SA president-elect. Calliste and current senator Emily Nassir are running for SA vice president.

There were no special orders.

In general orders, the senate went over a bill concerning Active Minds, who requested $1,300 in order to put on “Send Silence Packing,” an event that displays 1,100 backpacks representing the lives lost to suicide. The bill passed by general consent.

There was no new legislation.

In senator issues, the Senate brought up the idea of no longer appointing directors for next year but voting for them. The senators voiced their frustration in seeing the directors leaving early during Senate meetings and not putting an effort to communicate with the senators.

SA meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Lanigan 102. All meetings are open to the public.