Manhattan College’s Student Government held their first Student Assembly meeting of the semester this past Wednesday, Jan. 24.

Discussions during this meeting ranged from the college’s new hashtag, #JaspersFoodShare, the new campus life channel and plans for senior week.

The meeting commenced with the swearing-in of new members of the student court that was supposed to take place during the past fall semester, but was pushed to this past week.

Following the swearing-in of the new members, Executive Vice President Phillip Mourikes turned the discussion to the clearing of parking tickets for MC students by means other than payment.

Mourikes addressed the issue of students receiving a large number of parking tickets to the point where it becomes a financial burden. A possible solution to be discussed amongst the student court is to allow students to participate in community service in order to alleviate the burden of paying off parking tickets.

As the meeting continued, the Budget Allocation Committee decided the amount of money that would be allocated to two clubs for the conferences they have partaken in or will attend in the future. Despite the varying ask prices, both the Manhattan College Players and Beta Alpha Psi were given the same amount of $1,200.

Later on in the assembly meeting, Vice President of Residential Affairs, Patrick Estanbouli, discussed the progress of the petitions that were created in hopes of speeding up the replacement of the elevators in the residential buildings located on main campus, such as Horan Hall. Currently, it will take about three to five years to replace the elevators.

Estanbouli said that the purpose of “the petition was to move up the replacement… We’re trying to get that within the next year, possibly, maximum, two years.” According to Estanbouli, the petition has been sent to the President’s office and is being processed by President Brennan O’Donnell.

In addition to discussing the elevator replacements for the on-campus residential halls, Estanbouli also discussed the addition of a new channel that students will be able to access on their television to aid in the promotion of on-campus events.

The Campus Life Channel will provide students with information about what will be happening on campus and give students an inside look at the lives of their fellow peers by having student highlights to create a more inclusive community at MC.

As the meeting progressed, it was noted that there is an open position on the assembly for the School of Business Representative. Two students, Samitheus Savinon and Ryan Kwiecinski, were both interested in this position and were given the opportunity to share why they would like to become a representative for the School of Business.

The decision to vote for the School of Business representative has been moved to the next assembly meeting on Feb. 7, in accordance to the Student Assembly Constitution.

Towards the end of the meeting, potential plans for senior week were mentioned. One arrangement brought up by Alannah Boyle, was that part of the senior week budget could be allocated to the hiring of off-duty NYPD officers in order to ensure the safety of students throughout the week’s festivities.

Having discussed important topics that will be brought up again in the future, Bishop adjourned the informative student assembly meeting.

The next meeting will be Feb. 7, at 12pm in Kelly Commons room 5A.