Student government held an assembly meeting in Kelly Commons room 5A this past Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 12 p.m. Assembly meetings are open to all members of the Manhattan College student body.
After Micaela Bishop, student body president, called the meeting to order and roll call was taken, junior class representative Liam Moran took the floor to question the minutes from the assembly meeting two weeks prior. The votes for the appointment of student court members were never recorded in the minutes and Moran requested the document be revised with the relevant information. Student vice president Philip Mourikes agreed to this request and Bishop continued on with the meeting.
Gourmet Dining Updates
Brian Weinstein, resident district manager of Gourmet Dining at the college, was in attendance at this week’s meeting with his event announcements. He listed off the following dates for planned meals and events: Feb. 14 in Cafe 1853 is a reservation-only surf-and-turf Valentine’s dinner (with sign-ups in the Cafe at the register), Biggest Loser contest sign-ups have started with the dietitian Jennifer Senecal and the Wafel and Dinges truck will return to the Kelly Commons parking lot on Thursday, Feb. 22.
Anna Rosario, a sophomore newly appointed to the role of overseeing the food service committee chimed in saying that their meeting the previous week had gone well, despite Weinstein not being available at the last minute. The group discussed ideas and suggestions which Rosario brought up to Weinstein. She also mentioned that the gift card reader at the Kelly Commons Starbucks is now up and running again, after being out of commission for the first few weeks of the semester. The next meeting of the committee is Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 4 p.m. in Cafe 1853.
Clash of the Classes
A new event in the making, Clash of the Classes, was announced by Bishop at the meeting. Vice president of social life, Adam Genners, was not present during the meeting, so Bishop spoke on his behalf about the event.
“Besides Springfest, there will be another event we’re having this spring semester that hasn’t happened in a while and it’s going to be a ‘class war’ kind of deal, it’ll be called ‘Clash of the Classes.’ This event is going to take a bunch of different sporting events and we’ll have different sign-ups. But we’ll definitely need help from the class representatives if they want to make t-shirts or whatever the help may be, we’ll hopefully have a meeting soon to plan the events.”
Bishop continued.
“We’ve invited the gentleman who runs the intramural events to our next executive board meeting so we’re going to be talking about where exactly and what sporting events we’re going to be doing,” said Bishop.
The event, which is expected to take place during the month of April, will be largely dependent on the participation of class representatives.
“We’re really trying to enforce that the class representatives get involved, especially with making t-shirts. Students love t-shirts and it’s the best way to get people to get interested and get with the whole program,” said Patrick Estanbouli, vice president of residential affairs.
The events are planned to take place outdoors both on the quad and in the Jasper Hall backyard due to Gaelic Park having a game and Draddy being booked that day.
Community Luncheon
Ryan Quattromani, senior class representative and head of the neighborhood relations committee, spoke next about upcoming events that include the members of Riverdale. On Monday, Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. in Kelly Commons, there will be a community luncheon for members of the neighborhood to come meet with students and faculty of MC.
“It’s an important event for Manhattan College. The president will try to come, along with other members of the administration. The community comes on campus to share a lunch with us. In the past we’ve had a forum-type luncheon, we’re still deciding what the format will be this year,” said Quattromani.
He explained that the event is planned in terms of menu and location, but volunteers were still needed such as student servers and greeters.
The executive board and other members of the assembly then discussed how to get the word out, including reaching out to the Riverdale Press, inviting professors who live locally, and flyering upper Riverdale through the help of commuter students.
If any students are interested in joining the committee or helping out with the luncheon, their next meeting is on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 5 p.m. in the student government room next door to the student engagement office.
As for other events with the committee, Event Services has a neighborhood movie night planned for Sunday, Feb. 25 at 1 p.m. that is open to the public. Location and movie are to be announced. The next neighborhood cleanup is planned for Sunday, April 22 with more information to come.
Campus Updates and Other Happenings
Estanbouli was the next to speak about the resident student association. AJ Goodman, associate director of residence life, was scheduled to speak about the college’s new Campus Life Channel (CLC), but due to complications with the CLC, he would be available at the next assembly meeting.
Estanbouli then went on to speak about the updates coming to residence halls across campus, pointing out the “Horan Hall Elevators to be Replaced” article in last week’s issue of the paper as reference. He also spoke about a new project of replacing all the hall water fountains to the water bottle-filling stations in an attempt to make the campus more eco-friendly.
“We’re getting communication out to see which things which buildings need,” said Estanbouli in regards to numerous residence hall updates that are needed throughout the campus.
In regards to other campus updates, Bishop mentioned later on in the meeting the library planning on adding a new printing kiosk sometime within the next few months, located before the turnstiles.
“They’re looking into at the end of the spring and into the summer, but right when you walk into the building there is going to be another printing station completely. That’s in the works right now and we’re hopefully going to allow them to be unlocked and all you’d have to do is log in to print,” said Bishop.
Kaitlyn Von Runnen, vice president of academic affairs, spoke briefly about the next “kNOw more” event, which will be Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first floor of Kelly. This month’s event will focus on the awareness of eating disorders.
It was also announced that the next commuter student association will be on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 12:30 p.m. in Kelly room 4.12.
Election Committee
The next order of business was the establishment of an election committee to oversee the upcoming election season during the middle of the semester. The role of the committee is to oversee that all campaigning should follow the club’s constitution.
“This committee will be assembled so that we can keep things under regulation and with the rules. With the elections, it hasn’t been enforced within the past few years but we’re looking to make it transparent as possible this year. We’re going to refrain from having student government members who are now in the assembly and are not seniors to not be involved in the elections committee, in case they are running,” said Bishop.
Senior Class Announcements
The floor was then given to senior class representative Alannah Boyle, who spoke about senior-specific events and activities planned for the end of the semester. Boyle is looking for interested seniors to join the class gift committee in order to decide what kind of money should be raised by the graduating class of 2018.
“It’ll involve the best way to solicit money from our fellow seniors for a class gift and what we want our class gift to be and where it’ll be on campus,” said Boyle.
Events for this year’s senior week, or “senior experience” as Boyle put it, should be finalized within the next month.
New School of Business Representative Voting
Earlier in the meeting, ballots were passed around to voting assembly members to decide on a new representative for the School of Business, which was announced that voting would take place at the previous meeting. The students running for this position were Samitheus Savinon, Sarah Stone and Ryan Kwiecinski. The votes were counted and Kwiecinski was the winner.
“I’m really excited. [I] definitely want to keep an open line of communication between the School of Business and student government and much sure everyone’s voices are heard,” said Kwiecinski after the meeting was adjourned.
The minutes were accepted and the group dispersed after Bishop highlighted an important piece of business for the next meeting: a discussion about the student activities fee.
The next student government assembly meeting is planned for Feb. 21 at 12 p.m. in Jasper Hall’s first floor lounge.
Editor’s Note: Taylor Brethauer is the Student News Representative on the Student Government Assembly.