by Taylor Brethauer, Editor-in-Chief

Student Government had multiple announcements and points of discussion, including important updates for several committees, at this week’s assembly meeting held on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at noon in Kelly 4B.

Minimum Wage Discussion

Vice President of Residential Affairs Isabel Quinones spoke briefly about the Resident Student Association (RSA) dorm hall visits that have been happening across campus within the previous weeks. She said they have been successful in generating new ideas and creating a list of concerns from students.

She then proceeded to talking about the recent College Senate meeting and an important topic of discussion at the recent meeting on the minimum wage resolution accepted last year.

“Students are having the issue with the minimum wage going up. Some students are having their hours cut or their financial aid is running out so they aren’t allowed to work next semester,” said Quinones.

It’s a case by case problem, she mentioned, especially due to the separate federal work study aid some students have received or the general on-campus employment.

Senior Liam Moran, who is the Speaker of the Senate, and was also a part of the committee who drafted and originally presented the resolution last year, made a few comments during the assembly about this recent problem.

“We were focusing on fair working wages on campus because we were already going bare minimum at federal level [due to state laws for private colleges…]. That was an injustice on campus and it was essentially important to our Lasallian values so we addressed it through the guides of ‘let’s get a working wage.’ It was presented that such budgets would run out faster and we could only go so far that the minimum wages go up but not the budgets going up, that would be an administrative and board of trustees discussion. We should probably look into that,” said Moran.

He mentioned that this need came from multiple student testimonies, including one made by a friend.

“Her money at that wage couldn’t even cover the interest on her student loans,” said Moran.

With the arising issues of budgets running out and students losing the opportunity for employment, Quinones said students are planning to group together to discuss further.

Kerry Cavanagh, vice president of academic affairs, encouraged class vice presidents and school representatives to bring this information up to their constituents.

If any students are facing similar issues, they are encouraged to reach out to Student Government to allow their voices to be heard.

Resident Hall Updates

As recently reported on in The Quadrangle, multiple rooms in Horan Hall have been affected by mold, causing students to be temporarily relocated. This issue was also brought up during the Senate meeting.

“Dr. Satterlee talked about how there aren’t just cases in Horan but also Lee and some in OV [Overlook Manor] so it is going a little more widespread. They are doing some tests on it and they’re having an outside contractor coming in to talk about it. It is now not just facilities looking into this but they have people that are qualified for this,” said Quinones.

She continued.

“This is all for the health and safety of the students and they’re being very proactive about all of this. They’re saying [the mold] probably stemmed from the hot and humid summer we just had.”

She mentioned Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., who also had a similar problem which caused an entire dorm to shutdown, relocating multiple students to a nearby hotel.

Andrew Ryan, vice president of facilities, spoke about the testing in the dorms.

“Andrew Ryan talked about the testing they’re doing on the air quality in all of the rooms that were affected and they’re doing spot testing of all the buildings. He said the main categories are prior water leakage, typical bathroom stuff and then the air conditioner units,” said Quinones.

The topic of the wasps nest, which was once located outside of Overlook Manor at the beginning of the semester, was then brought up.

The nest is now located on the walk from Overlook to the main campus.

“I talked to AJ [Goodman] about it. It’s not on school property so we can’t do anything about it. So they contacted 311 […] they did all that they can do. So now it’s a New York City problem,” said Quinones.

Food Service Committee Announcements

Heading up the FSC is Fatoumata Saho, who was elected at the first assembly meeting of the semester.

The previous FSC meeting brought about many new ideas such as events and specific times and dates for when Locke’s Loft will let commuter students in for free. The next day for this will be on Oct. 31 and there will also be a costume contest.

The committee also discussed a cooking contest to be held in Cafe 1853 during the month of November, but more details will be discussed at the next meeting.

FSC’s next meeting is planned for Oct. 26, with time and place to be announced.

“Our next meeting we will discussing more event ideas and brainstorm our mission statement,” said Saho. She also encouraged more people to join the committee.

The assembly also spoke about the Boxed Meal form, which Gourmet Dining plans to do more publicizing about in the coming weeks.

Boxed Meal can be found on the MC Glance app by searching “Locke’s Boxed Meal Request.” Students are able to request a boxed lunch with four hours notice Monday through Thursday and a 24 hours notice on weekends.

A set menu is provided, allowing students to choose one meal option including breakfast, rotisserie, pizza, wok, veggie, salad or sandwich.

Once a student orders, they are blocked from Locke’s for the meal period. They can pick up their boxed meal at the back entrance of Locke’s at the register.

This form, along with an app planned for the future that shows students what’s on the menu in the dining hall, is in the works via Gourmet Dining.

Saho plans to announce more information as she receives it through Nick Valinotti, the new resident district manager of Gourmet Dining.

Miscellaneous

Many events are planned for the coming weeks, including another “kNOw more” campaign centered on domestic violence awareness. The campaign and tabling event was started by last year’s vice president of academic affairs, Kaitlyn Von Runnen.

The Cooper administration also plans to “bridge the gap”, as they campaigned about last spring, between athletics and students. They will be advertising and co-sponsoring sporting events throughout the year. More announcements about this partnership will be made at future meetings.

The minutes were accepted soon after and the meeting was adjourned.

The next assembly meeting will be on Wednesday, Oct. 31 at noon in Kelly 4B.